


Levels Of ViolencE

by JHpacigeno109



Series: Underfeelings [4]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anger, Angst, Anxiety, Depressing, Depression, F/F, Female Chara (Undertale), Female Frisk (Undertale), Hurt/Comfort, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Suicidal Thoughts, Teenage Chara (Undertale), Teenage Frisk (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24711229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JHpacigeno109/pseuds/JHpacigeno109
Summary: Frisk is at a loss. Chara is dead. The person she cared about most had died sacrificing herself. Frisk had to do something to bring Chara back. That is when Frisk finds that if she gains twenty Levels Of ViolencE, she will bring Chara back from the dead. The hard part is gaining each LOVE. Frisk will have to struggle through this hard journey. Meanwhile, Alphys has some more scientific or magical ways that might be able to bring Chara back. Within the void, though, Chara finds a friend long forgotten. What will happen in this interesting quest?
Relationships: Chara/Frisk (Undertale)
Series: Underfeelings [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737562
Kudos: 4





	1. LOVE in Love

It was a dream just like the previous timelines, when Chara was possessing Frisk. There was fog everyone around Frisk. She was in a dark place. It was cold and damp. It smelled like mildew. Frisk looked around. She saw nothing around her beside the fog. Frisk grew nervous. She felt strange, almost as if she was comforted yet horrified. Frisk shivered as she sat down. Suddenly, her right forearm burst into extreme pain. Frisk screamed. She began to sob in this dark, foggy place. Everything here, except for the fog was dark. Darker. Yet darker. 

“Frisk... is that you?” A female voice rung out through the darkness. That voice sounded familiar to Frisk. She felt as if she knew it from somewhere. Frisk looked around. She was afraid and hurting. Frisk didn’t see anything, yet she knew that someone or something was there, watching her. Frisk was too scared to answer. She just stared in random directions while clenching her right forearm. Then, Frisk saw a humanoid silhouette in the fog. 

“Wh- who are you? Where am I? Are you going to h- hurt me? G- go away!” Frisk yelled at the scary person walking towards her. Frisk watched the strange human as they stepped back. She heard water dropping. Then, she heard a noise that sounded sad. Was the strange, creepy figure... crying? 

“Y- you’re in the void, Frisk. I would n- never hurt y- you, ever. I thought that y- you cared about me, Frisk... But I’ll g- go away. . .” The figure sobbed. This person was familiar to Frisk. The way that they cried was a noise that really hurt Frisk. They were in extreme emotional pain. Frisk tried to remember who this person was, but she couldn’t. 

“Well, who are y- you! Don’t go, a- actually! I want to t- talk with you!” Frisk yelled at the silhouette. They stopped and came closer. Frisk began to see color in the person. There was green, brown, yellow, skin-tone, pink... This person was so familiar to Frisk. Frisk stood up and looked at their face. Frisk saw red eyes with blue tears streaming down her face. The girl had a trembling, small mouth. Her eyebrows were curved upwards and her nose was small and not very extrusive. Frisk was the same height as this girl. The girl's brown hair came down to her shoulders. Frisk stared at her and began to sob. 

“Hey, Frisk, it’s okay! Calm down, y- you'll leave when you wake up,” The figure said. They stepped with their brown shoes towards Frisk and gave her a hug. The green sleeves of their shirt wrapped around Frisk. Frisk embraced her back and wrapped her arms around the girl. Her hands rested by the yellow stripe on her shirt. Frisk was sobbing and the girl was crying. 

“I m- missed you so much... I’m s- so, so sorry. . . I’m s- such a horrible person for letting you d- do that... Please forgive me. Chara,” Frisk said to Chara. She Frisk didn’t know how Chara had ended up in the void. She didn’t want Chara to end up in the void. Frisk was just happy she got to see Chara again. 

“Frisk, how about we sit down and talk? And you’re not a horrible person, that’s me. I’m the horrible one. I forgive you, even though there’s nothing to forgive. Now, I want you to tell me everything that happened after I d- died, okay? Can you do that for me?” Chara asked Frisk as she helped her sit down. Frisk was sobbing as she followed Chara lead. The red and purple eyes of the depressed girls met. Both of them had blue tears streaming down their faces. 

“Ch- Chara... Everything? O- okay... I can do that, for you. I will do anything for you. All of u- us took a moment to just g- get over the initial shock. We all took one another’s h- hands and went to Sans and Papyrus’s house a- after a couple minutes. I- it was around ten minutes, I think. Sans went t- to take a nap, Asriel, Toriel, and Asgore went to Toriel’s home, Alphys and Undyne went to Undyne’s house, and Papyrus d- did something in his room. I just waited there for a long time. Maybe a couple h- hours. It really h- hurt me when y- you sacrificed y- yourself, Chara. . . Wh- why did y- you do that?” Frisk sobbed in explanation. Chara looked as if she was feeling regret during the recap. Then, Frisk explained sadly, “A- and then I w- went to the b- bathroom and I, u- uh, I... I d- did something b- b- bad. . .” 

“Frisk? What did you d- do?” Chara asked worriedly. Frisk looked at Chara’s beautiful red eyes, which were currently full of absolute fear. There were also hints of regret and depression. Frisk tried to speak, but her sobs wouldn’t let her. Chara hugged Frisk and said, “Just tell me when you’re ready.” 

Frisk looked at Chara and started to shake a tiny bit. Frisk didn’t want Chara to know about what she had done. Frisk didn’t want Chara to think she was a person who didn’t care about herself. But then Frisk realized that Chara didn’t care about herself. Frisk realized that Chara had made her quickly care about herself when she originally didn’t. Frisk decided to tell Chara about her self-harm. “Ch- Chara... I’m r- ready to t- tell y- you what I d- d- did. . .” 

“Are you sure, Frisk?” Chara asked. Frisk looked at Chara with her sad, worried, depressed purple eyes and nodded solemnly. Chara nodded back as Frisk reached for her right sleeve. Chara’s fear and nervousness spiked as she became fearful of what Frisk was going to show her. Chara recognized the way Frisk winced whilst pulling her sleeve back. Chara was silent and speechless when she saw the first cut. Frisk was sobbing and Chara understood why. Frisk had cut herself. Then, Chara began to cry. The second cut was now out from under the blue, somewhat bloody sleeve of Frisk. Chara looked at Frisk full of worry and compassion. Then, both of the teenage girls were in horrible sobs as they looked at Frisk’s third and final cut of self-harm. 

“I- I’m so, s- so s- sorry, Chara... I sh- shouldn't have d- done it. . . I o- only tried it b- because it looked l- like it made you f- feel better and I w- was really hurting inside a- after you let yourself g- get killed to s- save me even though I w- was the one who should’ve d- died a- and I wanted to f- feel better... I didn’t know I would only hurt m- more but it felt good to make myself suffer a tiny b- bit... I liked hurting myself b- because I really f- feel like I’m a b- bad person, Chara... B- but then, after m- making my third c- cut, my L- LOVE increased. . . A- and that o- only made m- me more sad b- because then e- everything hurt w- worse but l- less. . . I’M SO S- SORRY CHARA!” Frisk sobbed as she hugged Chara. Chara hung her head and embraced Frisk back. 

“Frisk. Why? Why would you do something that I do, especially if you know that it’s bad?! Just because I die doesn’t mean you have to do what I did, Frisk. And why the hell did you hurt yourself up to the point where your Level Of ViolencE increased? You better stop self-harming, Frisk. I will check if you have self-harmed more each time that you sleep. And if you’re gaining more LOVE, you need to stop. There’s no reason whatsoever to gain a LOVE of twenty. And what did you even use to h- hurt yourself, Frisk? O- okay?” Chara said to Frisk. Chara was upset at Frisk. Frisk should not have done that. Chara wasn’t at the point of forgiveness yet. Frisk buried her face into Chara’s shoulder. Chara laid her head on top of Frisk’s. Frisk then got a small idea that she began to make more thorough as she spoke with Chara more. 

“Th- then, Sans teleported into the b- bathroom and caught m- me. He s- seemed really upset at me b- but he didn’t really show it. He l- let me put my shirt and your Locket b- back on and then I got to w- wash all the bl- blood off of myself... Then, S- Sans teleported me and him down t- to the living room and I took a n- nap and now I’m here, with y- you, Chara. . .” Frisk sobbed violently into Chara’s shoulder. Frisk felt Chara’s tears fall onto her head. Frisk tried to make herself calm down. She was able to stop the sobbing after a couple minutes. Frisk sat up next to Chara. She reached for Chara’s hand. Chara looked at Frisk for a long moment before grabbing her hand. 

“Thank you for explaining and being brave to talk about y- your self-h- harm, Frisk. But you still haven’t answered one of my questions, Frisk. I’ve also developed a new question for you, Frisk. So, what did y- you s- self-harm with and where did you get my Heart Locket, Frisk? Also, when will you let everyone else know that y- you have, um, s- self-harmed, Frisk?” Chara asked. She looked at Frisk with her tear-filled, sad red eyes. Frisk worriedly looked back with her tear-filled, worried purple eyes. Chara gestured for Frisk to go ahead and answer all of her questions. 

Frisk nervously decided to answer Chara’s questions, even though they made her uncomfortable. Frisk said, “I s- self-harmed with your knife, Chara. I grabbed it when I grabbed your Locket. And I grabbed your Locket when you had j- just died. . .” Frisk cried. She took a moment to try to compose herself before answering Chara’s final question. “Well, Chara, when were you going to tell us about your self-harm?” Frisk retorted. Chara hung her head, which then caused Frisk to be filled with regret. Why had Frisk done that? She was with the person she cared about most that she could only see in her dreams, so why in the world would she make a witty reply to make her feel bad? Frisk began to feel badly about herself. 

“I would’ve told you as I was about to kill myself. . . That’s what I said to myself each time I made a cut. . . ‘I’ll tell Frisk, Asri, Mom, Dad, Sans, Undyne, Papyrus, Alphys, and everyone else when I am dying... That’ll be the best time...’ It wasn’t fun for me, Frisk. I didn’t enjoy hurting myself as much as you think. I suffered a lot. I only enjoyed it for two reasons. One: it was me, an utter piece of trash, suffering. Two: self-harm brought back my sanity and humanity. That’s why I made my cuts, Frisk. S- so, when are you going to tell them? Be smart, not stupid like me, and actually choose to tell them. Because y- you are not s- suicidal, right Frisk? I- I'd already h- helped you st- stop feeling that w- way. R- right? Y- you aren’t e- ever going t- to try to k- kill y- y- yourself, Fr- Frisk. . . ?” Chara sobbed. Frisk felt horrible. She was strangely silent. Chara sat and sobbed in the company of the silent, crying Frisk for a while. It felt like an hour. 

“I do kinda feel that way, Chara. But I won’t do it. Because I think I know how to bring y- you back, Chara. I have a single idea. All I have to do is get twenty LOVE-” Frisk tried to explain to Chara, but Chara refused to let Frisk finish after she said LOVE. 

“NO! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GAIN ANY MORE LOVE FRISK! I DON’T EVEN WANT TO BE ALIVE, I’M HAPPY DEAD! DON’T BRING ME BACK! I’M NOT SUFFERING HERE LIKE I THOUGHT I MIGHT BE! I WAS THINKING I’D BE BACK IN REAL DEATH, BUT I’M IN THE VOID INSTEAD, SO I’M STILL ABLE TO SEE YOU AND BE HAPPY! SO, DON’T GET LEVELS OF VIOLENCE, FRISK!” Chara screamed at Frisk. Tears were streaming down her face as her angry red eyes stared into Frisk’s scared purple ones. Chara was upset. Frisk was afraid but would still do her plan. Frisk again tried to explain to Chara her plan. 

“And then you’ll come back. And, I don’t have to kill anyone. I won’t kill anyone. I’ll just hurt myself-” Frisk tried to explain to Chara. Again, Chara cut her off. Frisk just wanted Chara to listen! Nobody would get hurt except for Frisk, so why was everything so bad? Frisk was bringing Chara back from the dead, so why was she so upset? Was Chara still suicidal, even though she was dead? Frisk hoped not. 

“DON’T. Look, Frisk, if you really care about me, you won’t do this. I don’t like being alive. I don’t like myself. I’m a horrible piece of trash. I didn’t do good things. I am not a good person. Nobody should do anything to bring me back alive. I’m not worth anyone’s time. I died and now I’m somewhat happy. So, Frisk, please don’t bring me back. And especially don’t hurt yourself. Frisk, I know you care about me, but here with you in the void, I’m as happy as I can be. I have one of the two people I really feel I can be myself around and I’m dead where I don’t have to be going through all those horrible emotions. Okay, Frisk?” Chara asked. She let go of Frisk’s hand and wiped away her tears. Chara stood up and looked at Frisk with pleading, depressed eyes. 

“Chara, I need you. Will you please think about me here? I feel like everything everyone has been doing has been for you, and now I’m feeling really sad because everything they did was useless. I feel that I deserve to be happy too, Chara. So please, let me bring you back. Okay, Chara?” Frisk asked. Her depression and anger lashed outward as she spoke. Unfortunately, her cruel response seemed to be true. Frisk felt horrible as she watched Chara’s reaction. 

“LOOK! I TRY TO BE FREAKING HAPPY! I DID EVERYTHING I COULD TO TRY TO MAKE MYSELF HAPPY WITHOUT DISTURBING YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE! BUT YOU GUYS DECIDED TO MAKE THE SUICIDAL DEPRESSED GENOCIDAL MANIAC KILLER CHILD THE ONLY DAMN THING THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY! ALL I WANTED WAS TO BE DEAD, SO YOU GUYS DID EVERYTHING TO MAKE YOURSELVES HAPPY, NOT ME! YOU HAVE DONE EVERYTHING TO MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY, FRISK, SO HOW ABOUT I GET TO HAPPY FOR ONCE?! OKAY!?” Chara screamed at Frisk through her sobs. Chara turned away from Frisk and stomped away. Frisk felt horrible. 

Frisk felt as if she was the lowest scum of the earth, even though she was in the void. Frisk began to hate herself. She felt how Chara had felt. Frisk had an urge to commit what Chara had tried to do, but she wouldn’t. Despite everything Chara had yelled at her, Frisk would go ahead and bring her back to life. Pain and suffering were the only things Frisk had at the moment. She needed to be happy right now. Frisk would go ahead and be selfish and make herself become happy. Frisk felt horrible as she began to stir. The fog disappeared and the void became white. Frisk’s eyes fluttered open and she was laying on Sans and Papyrus’s couch. 

Frisk helped herself off the green couch within Sans and Papyrus’s home. She felt tired. Frisk’s mind hurt. She had just returned from the void. The void where she could communicate with Chara. Because Chara was dead. Frisk had a job to do. She needed to bring Chara back. Frisk was going to hurt others and herself to the point where she would gain twenty LOVE and then Chara would come back. 

Frisk’s right forearm throbbed. She looked down at her blue sleeve and saw some blood staining it. Frisk quickly pulled her sleeve back and looked at her arm. Her marks of self-harm she had made hours ago were still bleeding. Frisk winced as she pulled her sleeve back down. She couldn’t focus on pain. She had to cause more. Frisk had to gain LOVE. 

Frisk’s left hand went to grab her right forearm as her right hand went digging through her pocket. Frisk had to text Sans to reclaim Chara’s knife. That was the only weapon Frisk intended to use to hurt people. Frisk didn’t find the phone in her right pocket, so she moved her right hand to her left pocket and found it there. Frisk released her right forearm as she felt her fingers wrap around the device. Frisk pulled it out of her pocket. 

Frisk turned it on and then looked for the messaging application. Once Frisk found it, she began to look through her contacts. Frisk saw everyone she had every texted. Papyrus... Alphys... Asgore... Toriel... Undyne... Asriel... Flowey... Chara... Sans... Sans! Frisk tried to tap on Sans, but accidently clicked on Chara instead. Frisk was about to back out, but then looked at the final words she and Chara had exchanged through the phone. Hi Frisk. Hi Chara! How are you? I’m okay. You? I’m doing good! Where are you right now, just wondering. Frisk, what are you doing? But, I’m at Mom’s house. Okay! I just wanted to check in on you. I love you, Chara. Love you too, Frisk. 

Tears were streaming down Frisk’s eyes. She wiped them away as she backed out of the messages with Chara. Frisk couldn’t afford to be sad while she had people to hurt. Frisk tapped on Sans and sent him a text. Hi Sans. Where are you? Frisk waited for a response. She got a confusing one. on the sun. What type of a response was that? Frisk replied. That’s weird. Then, Frisk realized why. eh, kiddo, i give a lot of weird responses. you've just gotta *warm up* to them! Frisk laughed, even though she hated it. Frisk, once done with her laughing fit, responded. Okay then. Where are you actually? i'm at grillby’s. why? I’ll come over. See you in a minute. m'kay. see ya, kiddo. 

Frisk hit the power button on her phone and slid it back into her pocket. She turned towards the doorway and walked towards it. The doorframe loomed above Frisk. It was almost twice her height. Frisk disliked the door. She let out a slight chuckle. Would Frisk have to be mean to the door to get LOVE? No, Frisk shouldn’t think of it like that. Levels of ViolencE and EXcecution Points were not something to take humor in. They were horrible things that could turn anyone into a genocidal maniac. From here on out, Frisk would not be gaining LOVE. She would gain, RED points. ‘Revive Embraced by Dead.’ No, that was a stupid acronym. Frisk would just call them points to get Chara back. 

Everything Frisk was doing was for Chara, which in turn meant that Frisk was doing everything for herself. Frisk almost found it funny how much she cared about Chara. Chara and Frisk had a very strong bond. They had both felt horrible pain and torture. They had both had their emotions, hopes, and dreams crushed by an evil guy. Frisk refused to think that man’s name after he murdered Chara. That guy put Frisk in her current situation. Frisk felt extreme pain within her soul. She was about to become a horrible, evil monster just so she could feel happiness. But it would be worth it. Chara was that happiness. This evil quest was for Chara. To bring her back. For good. At least, Frisk hoped for good. 

As she walked from Sans and Papyrus’s house to Grillby’s in Snowdin Town, Frisk thought about how Chara would react. In the void, Chara had almost seemed suicidal even though she was dead. What if Chara would try and kill herself again? Frisk hoped that her efforts to bring Chara back would not be in vain. Everything Frisk was about to commit was going to be so that she could bring the most important person in her life back. Frisk then realized that she was a necromancer. A very, very interesting type of necromancer, but still a necromancer. She had brought Chara back from the dead once, Chara brought Frisk back from the dead once, and now Frisk was going to bring Chara back to the land of the living once more. 

Frisk arrived directly in front of the door at Grillby’s. She heard the music playing from the jukebox. She heard the dogs inside playing card games. Frisk could hear Sans’s voice conversing with Grillby. Frisk began to fear what the silly skeleton’s reaction to her request would be. It would be awkward to ask already, but in front of everyone in Grillby’s? That would be as far as embarrassing. And what would Sans say? If he said no, would Sans mention Frisk’s self-harm? Frisk felt very uncomfortable asking him about anything at the moment, because I mean, this skeleton was the only guy who knew about Frisk’s sad, bloody secret under her sleeve. That was another thing Frisk would have to worry about. 

What if somebody saw her scars of self-harm? Frisk would have to be careful and make sure to not let anything or anyone pull her sleeve down much at all. Maybe Frisk should have made those cuts on her arm instead of forearm... That would probably be easier to hide. But, Frisk shouldn’t be hiding the cuts. Well, she should hide them, but tell her people. People like Sans, Papyrus, Asriel, Toriel, Asgore, Undyne, and Alphys needed to know so that they could help Frisk with her depression and not self-harm. But that would have to come after Chara was living again, because they wouldn’t allow Frisk to hurt herself. Frisk felt as if she was destroying every promise, hope, and dream she knew of. Hell, Frisk might have shattered some she didn’t know about! 

Frisk looked at the dark wooden door. He yellow-ish hands shakily gripped the cold metal of the golden doorknob. Frisk felt her anxiety increase as she began to turn the knob. Frisk was ready to go into Grillby’s and interrogate the skeletal friend of hers about a certain knife she required for necromantic reasons. The door creaked open. The smell of grease and alcohol flew through Frisk’s nostril’s Frisk saw an open stool next to Sans, who was conversing with the fire man himself. Frisk walked towards Grillby and Sans and sat herself upon the stool. The sound of a fart rung out in the room. Frisk quickly dismounted the stool and saw a whoopie cushion. Frisk tossed it at Sans and remounted the stool. This was the right skeleton, at least. 

“heya kiddo. whatdya wanna talk about?” Sans asked. Frisk sighed and asked her question.


	2. Drunk Coping

The cheerful skeleton took his point of focus away from the man made of fire in front of him and looked at the human to his side. Sans smiled at Frisk and asked her a simple question. “heya kiddo. whatdya wanna talk about?” Sans asked. This question bought a sigh from Frisk, which instantly worried the skeleton. Frisk always seemed to sigh before something bad. Sans prepared for a very bad question. He unfortunately expected something such as ‘Will you let me kill myself?’ which is a very bad thing. The lazy sentry’s happy grin turned into an anticipating frown as he readied himself. 

“Sans, will you give me... Where is... Can we head outside?” Frisk asked. Sans became worried. He looked at Frisk. This must be a very bad question if Frisk couldn’t even ask it. Sans was afraid for the kiddo. He slowly nodded and then nodded fiercely in response to Frisk’s request. “Thanks, Sans,” Frisk replied. She quickly hopped off her stool in the bar and walked over to the door and exited the restaurant. Sans’s eyes carefully watched Frisk. Something was off. 

“grillby, can ya cancel my order? thanks,” Sans said. He waved goodbye to the fiery man and then shortcut himself directly outside of the bar. Sans watched Frisk jump as he teleported directly in front of her. Frisk glared at Sans quickly. Her glare seemed more sinister and eviler. It put Sans on edge. He spoke, “so, frisk, what is going on?” Sans was worried that Frisk would quickly become upset with his question. Something was off. Frisk wasn’t acting like herself. She was never this mean, even if she was barely acting mean whatsoever. 

Frisk expression then became somewhat cowardly as she mumbled something under her breath. Frisk then looked at Sans with an uncomfortable face. Did Frisk think Sans heard what she said? Sans waited a moment and then Frisk realized that she wasn’t loud enough. “S- Sans. Do you know where Chara’s knife is?” Frisk asked nervously. Sans felt his eyes go away as he was now the one glaring at Frisk. He instantly assumed that Frisk was now planning to hurt herself. 

Sans saw Frisk become fearful. She somewhat ducked away from Sans, even though she barely moved at all. Sans rested his right hand on Frisk’s left shoulder and stared into her eyes sternly. Her eyes seemed less purple than usual. Huh. That was weird. Sans then spoke. “why do you want her knife? you better not want to hurt yourself, kiddo, because if you do, well, let’s just leave that consequence undecided for now,” Sans angrily said through clenched teeth. 

“Sans, I know that right now you think that I dislike myself. Sure, I might be feeling down in the dumps since Chara is dead... But who isn’t? And that’s the only time I self-harmed, promise! I just want to be able to honor Chara with her knife, okay? And I just want her stuff because I really, really miss her. And I love her a lot, too. So please?” Frisk asked. Damn, Frisk had a very strong argument, even though Sans felt that there was something he wasn’t being told. Sans was somewhat convinced. He really thought hard about letting Frisk have Chara’s knife. Would it be the right option? Sans had an idea. He talked next. 

“so, kiddo, you want her knife? then, how about every week on... tuesday, you let me look at your arms and legs to look for any new cuts, okay? doesn’t that seem fair? i think it does. i probably shouldn’t give you her knife, but i know you two really cared about each other,” Sans said. He did feel like that was a fair proposition. That way Frisk could be happy and sans could make sure that she wouldn’t commit any more self-harm. As Sans reached for his phone to pull out his dimensional box, he remembered something else Chara had tried to do with that knife when she was alive. What if Frisk tried to do that too? Would Frisk try to commit suicide? I mean, she did seem pretty happy at the moment. Well, happy enough where she wouldn’t kill herself. Sans decided to give her a chance. He reached for his phone again and this time he did summon his dimensional box. Sans fished around in there. He saw three things. The first was a piece of folded paper. The second was Chara’s drawing. The third was Chara’s knife. Sans grabbed the folded piece of paper and put it in his pocket. Sans grabbed the knife and handed it to Frisk. He smiled a very fake smile. 

“Thanks, Sans,” Frisk said as she turned around. Sans watched her walk back to his house. He had to keep an eyesocket out for that kid. Something was definitely off. Sans was just feeling too depressed at the moment. He turned around and set his skeletal fingers upon the familiar, golden doorknob of Grillby’s. Sans breathed in some of the greasy, warm air before stepping back inside. Sans shut the door behind him and walked back to his stool. Sans helped himself right back up. 

“heya grillby. could you get me a burger, fries, a bottle of ketchup, and a beer? actually, make that two beers,” Sans said. He watched as Grillby grabbed two beer mugs and filled them to the top with a yellow beer. He set them directly in front of Sans. Sans quickly took a swig from one of them and, as he went to set it back down again, saw a bottle of ketchup had taken its place. “huh,” sans excitedly said as he set the beer down next to it. Sans looked up to say thanks to Grillby, but he was gone. Sans guessed that he was probably making his burger and fries. Sans picked the beer back up and took another swig. He felt a bit run down his lip. Sans caught it with a finger. He probably shouldn’t drink a lot of alcohol. Sans was feeling just a bit to depressed to care at the moment, though. In fact, Sans believed it was the depression that ordered the beers, not the skeleton himself. Sans took another drink from the mug and waited a bit longer for Grillby to come back. Sans didn’t see the fire man, so he took yet another gulp. Sans found that his first mug was empty now. He set it down and pushed it a bit away from him. Sans then watched Grillby come back in with the burger and fries. 

“... here,” Grillby said, setting the plate in front of Sans. Sans nodded to say thanks and took the top bun of his burger off. Sans grabbed the ketchup bottle and then put some ketchup on his burger. Then, Sans went ahead and covered his fries in ketchup. Now with all the ketchup on his food that he needed, Sans went ahead and began to drink the rest of the ketchup. As he was doing so, though, the cap fell of and ketchup spilled all over Sans’s tank-top and jacket. Sans sighed as he heard laughs come from around him. Today was just a great day for Sans. It couldn’t be better. Chara died, Frisk self-harmed, Frisk gets Chara’s knife back, and now this. Sans looked up and Grillby. 

“heya, grillby... couldya put my beer in a to-go cup? oh, could you also grab me a box for my burger and fries? and two more beers to-go, by the way. oh yeah, and you can put the bill on my tab. i'll pay it off tomorrow, i swear,” Sans said. Grillby nodded and went ahead and grabbed three Styrofoam cups. Grillby poured Sans’s current beer into one and then filled the others with fresh beer. Then, Grillby grabbed a cardboard to-go box from underneath the bar. Sans nodded as Grillby slid his food into the box. Sans grabbed everything with his magic as he walked out of the restaurant. Once outside, Sans turned and walked towards his house. As he felt his hand grab the doorknob, Sans prayed he wouldn’t see Frisk dead on the floor. Sans let out a sigh of relief when he saw Papyrus and Frisk watching an anime on the TV. 

Papyrus turned around to see who came in after he heard the door creak open. Papyrus smiled at his lazy brother as he walked in. “HELLO, SANS! HOW ARE YOU?” Papyrus asked. Then, the taller, silly skeleton grabbed the remote and paused the show as Sans walked over to the kitchen. Papyrus watched his brother carefully. Sans smiled at his bro and did his best efforts to not seem suspicious at all. Sans thought that his brother bought it. He magically set his beers and food on the counter as he prepared to answer Papyrus’s question. 

“heya, bro. i'm doing okay. i'm going to go shower and then i’m gonna finish eating. see ya soon,” Sans said as he quickly teleported up into his room. Sans went to his dresser and grabbed another pair of his iconic clothes. He grabbed some black track shorts, a white tank-top stained with ketchup, and a light blue jacket with a furry gray fabric around the rim of the hood. Sans then teleported into the bathroom. Sans pulled his jacket off and checked his pockets. Sans found the folded-up piece of paper in there. As he wondered what it could be, Sans opened unfolded the mysterious slip. Then, Sans remembered what it was. It was Chara’s suicide note from when she had tried to kill herself. Sans sadly nodded as he read it again. 

Hey. “heya, chara,” Sans said. Sorry. You’re furious with me. I know that much for sure, Sans. Heh. “n- no, actually. i'm just depressed since, well, y’know... you’re dead now.” Sorry for hurting you like this, with my suicide and all. I did it to help myself. If you didn’t know, which I know you do, I’ve been struggling with caring for myself. “well, at least you didn’t succeed in suicide. i'm glad that you didn’t kill yourself, even if you are still dead.” I have been all my life. Ever since I was born. Well, ever since I turned four. But that’s all you’re going to learn, Sans. “that’s a secret i’ll let ya keep.” That’s my secret that’s coming with me to the grave. When I wrote that, I meant it as a pun, but I guess it’s literal, too. Heh. I’m making this worse, aren’t I? “i got the pun. you always did have a sense of humor, even when ya killed me. and, no, you aren’t making it worse... at least, not much.” Again, sorry. I’ve got a request for you, Sans. You know Bane, the guy you called an arsehole? Give him hell and then send him there. If you want me to be happy, you’ll do it. I can’t live, well, be dead knowing that Bane has a future to hurt more children. Thanks, Sans. “heheh, kiddo, you were the one who sent him there. i couldn’t steal your fun, now could i?” Also, I asked everyone else to kill Bane, too. While I’m dead, remember the good things about me, okay? “i will, kiddo.” Don’t remember me by my self-harm or my suicide, remember me by my drawing or by the good times we had together. “i keep trying to forget those things already, chara. i’ll make sure that i and everyone else only remembers the good parts, too.” I don’t want to seem bad in anyone’s eyes. Put aside your role as the judge for me, okay? “i will.” Thank you, Sans. “you’re welcome, chara.” 

Sans found that he was crying as he folded the piece of paper back up. Sans pulled his phone out of his pocket and put the note back in his dimensional box. Sans smiled. Even if he was feeling super depressed and he was currently sobbing, Sans felt a glimmer of hope. A spark of joy. Something he hadn’t felt in a very, very long time. Sans, while on his phone, found his playlist of a cool song called ‘Megalovania’ and a bunch of remixes and alternate versions and remixes of the alternate versions. Sans set his playlist on shuffle. The first song was an alternate version that reminded Sans a lot about Chara. The song was called ‘Megalo Strike Back’ and it just seemed to feel like something Chara would have loved if she heard it. The song impacted his emotions, so Sans shook as he pressed the button to skip the song. The next song was one called ‘Tears in the Rain’ which Sans liked a lot. Now with his emotions a little more destroyed, Sans went ahead and finished undressing. He tossed his clothes in the washer, grabbed a towel from above the washer, and turned the shower on. Sans stepped in the hot, relaxing shower and cleansed himself from the ketchup all over his face and chest. Once he was clean, Sans turned the shower off, dried off, and put on his clean clothes. Sans grabbed his phone, stopped the music, and opened the door. 

As he slid his phone in his pocket, Sans teleported into the kitchen. Sans grabbed one of the beers he got from Grillby’s and began to drink it. Sans gulped it down pretty fast. It took him around twenty seconds, which was very good. But that was nowhere near how fast he could drink a bottle of ketchup. Sans could down a bottle of ketchup in under ten seconds if he really tried. Sans tossed the empty cup of beer into the trash can. Sans grabbed his second beer. As he turned around, though, San’s elbow knocked into his third beer. It fell over and the lid fell off, covering Sans in beer, now. “well, shit!” Sans yelled. Then, he remembered Papyrus and Frisk were in the living room. “i mean, well, shoot! please pardon my language,” Sans apologized. It had been a long day. Sans was feeling a bit better, a bit weirder, and a bit happier right now. Maybe he should drink more often. Sans slowly downed his second, and final, beer. Once he was done, Sans was overwhelmed with happiness, confidence, and stupidity. Sans stumbled out of the kitchen and sat on the couch directly between Frisk and Papyrus. 

“Sans... are you okay...?” Frisk asked. Sans chuckled. Then, he giggled. After that, his chuckle-giggle evolved into a chuckle-giggle-laugh. Sans was laughing so hard it was becoming hard to breath. He patted Frisk on the head, which gained some very uncomfortable expressions form the girl. Sans then frowned and stopped laughing. He stared at Frisk with a horrified expression for one moment before vomiting on her. Frisk looked disgusted and afraid by what just happened. 

“Hey Frisk, did you barf on yourself? Hehe...” Sans said. He giggled some more before vomiting on himself. He felt so funny inside. Then, Sans looked down and realized that he had vomited on himself. “Don’t worry, Frisk! You’re not the only one who vomited on themselves!” Sans yelled loudly. Frisk stared at Sans with an expression that screamed ‘Kill me now’. Sans burst into laughter as Frisk backed away from Sans. 

“SANS, YOU MUST BE DRUNK. YOU ARE PUTTING EFFORT INTO SPEAKING. AND YOU’RE VOMITING AND ACTING STRANGELY. BUT IT WAS THE EFFORT THAT GAVE IT AWAY! SO, FRISK, YOU ARE GOING TO GO SHOWER. SANS, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE YOU LAY DOWN HERE ON THE COUCH. YOU’RE GOING TO STAY HERE AND I’M GOING TO PUT A COLD WASHCLOTH OVER YOUR FOREHEAD. I WILL STAY HERE AND WATCH YOU AS YOU REST, BROTHER!” Papyrus said. Frisk nodded and Sans laughed. As both Papyrus and Frisk stood up, Sans laid down. This surprised Papyrus because he thought his drunk brother would do something else. Papyrus walked into the kitchen to grab a washcloth, wet rags, and bowl. Frisk went into the bathroom and closed and locked the door. 

As the intoxicated skeleton waited for his sober brother to come back, Sans wiggled around on the couch. It made jingling noises, which made Sans laugh more. Sans hated the sound, but it made him laugh. When his brother returned, Sans spoke. “Hey, bro,” Sans said, “Hear this sound?” Sans wiggled and made the couch jingle. “I can’t ‘beer’ it!” Sans erupted into roaring laughter at his own pun. Sans laughed so hard the he began to sob. Then, he vomited. Sans, sensing the opportunity, joked again. “You could say I have a ‘sick’ sense of humor!” 

Papyrus glared at his brother as he laid the cold, wet washcloth on Sans’s head. Papyrus then put the bowl is Sans’s arms, which caused Sans to hug it. He began to sob. Sans was overwhelmed with some horrible emotions. Papyrus patted his brother’s back as he frowned. Sans looked up at his brother. Sans stared at Papyrus looking for empathy or pity. Sans felt horrible and regretted drinking all that beer. Drunkenness was not a happy feeling. It was very much not a happy feeling. Sans saw a bit of pity and a lot of sympathy. Sans realized how glad he was that Papyrus wasn’t having empathy. Nobody should ever feel drunk. It was not a happy feeling. 

Sans began to sob as he turned to lay on his side. Papyrus, while still keeping a close eye on his brother, began to mop up the vomit with the rags. Sans cried a lot. He wasn’t feeling happy. He missed Chara. He didn’t like what Frisk had done. She shouldn’t have self-harmed. Sans hated that he was stupid enough to get drunk. And the ketchup incident where the bottle exploded all over him... That was very much not enjoyable. Sans was really struggling to not break out in complete sobs. Then, Sans burst into giggles. He didn’t know why it was so funny, but he found it hilarious that Papyrus was taking care of him for a change. Typically, Sans was the one making sure Papyrus was safe and well. 

Papyrus stood up after a couple minutes and looked down at where the barf was. Now, everything was cleaned up! Papyrus was proud of his cleaning skills. Sans pulled himself closer to the edge of the couch to see. Unfortunately, he fell of the couch. “Ow! Urg... Oh! Good job bro! You got it all cleaned up,” Sans said. Then, the drunk skeleton vomited again. Papyrus glared at his drunk brother before realizing that Sans couldn’t really control what was going on. As Papyrus helped Sans get back onto the couch, Sans said some weird stuff. “Hey, Papy? Do you remember dad much?” 

“WHO’S DAD? I DID NOT KNOW THAT WE HAVE A DAD! WHEN CAN I MEET HIM?” Papyrus excitedly asked. Sans became very nervous. He didn’t want to disappoint his bro, but he wanted to tell Papyrus the truth. Sans worried what his brother’s reaction might be. Now that Sans was fully on the couch again, Papyrus went back to cleaning up vomit. Papyrus was closely watching Sans and Sans now had most of Papyrus’s attention, too. 

“Uh, dad is our dad. I don’t know our mom, though. Dad’s name was Gaster. He was the royal scientist before Alphys. Dad loved science and made some cool things. He designed and built the Core. Dad also had a super cool lab under the lab. He called it the True Lab. It was cool and stuff... But Dad isn’t alive anymore. He fell into the Core and died. So, uh, sorry that you can’t, um, meet him, bro...” Sans said. He cried and then started to hiccup. Papyrus didn’t seem too upset, which made Sans happy. 

“DAD SOUNDS LIKE HE WAS REALLY COOL! I’M GLAD THAT YOU GOT TO MEET HIM, SANS. NOW, HOW ABOUT YOU TRY TO GO TO SLEEP? IT’LL HELP YOU STOP BEING DRUNK. THAT WAY, WE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER,” Papyrus said. Sans nodded and closed his eyes (somehow). Papyrus smiled at his brother. “GOODNIGHT, SANS. I LOVE YOU, BROTHER.” 

“G’night, bro. Love ya too...” Sans said as he drifted off into sleep. Falling asleep while drunk was a strange experience. He seemed to feel as if he was waking up, yet he was going asleep. Sans then woke up. He was laying down on the couch. He stood up. Sans decided to go and use the restroom. Sans stood up and walked over to the bathroom door. He walked very well. Sans grabbed the doorknob and twisted it open. 

Sans’s eyes shrunk. He was afraid. Blood was splattered all over the ground. Frisk was in here making hundreds of tiny cuts all over her arms. She screamed for each one. Her arms were red. The cuts were spewing out blood. Frisk’s face was in a creepy, twisted smile, though. Sans was afraid. He shut the door and turned around. Sans was even more scared of what he saw behind him. 

Chara was floating over towards Sans. She was dusting away again. She had her knife, but that was confusing. Frisk had Chara’s knife. Sans was scared. Suddenly, Chara shot green daggers at Sans. Sans dodged them and began to cry. WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON?! Sans was anxious and horrified. He didn’t want to die. Chara then swiped at Sans and made a big, long, bloody cut across his chest. Sans coughed up blood as Chara dusted away. Then, somebody exited the kitchen. 

“OH, SANS. WELL, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE FINALLY DYING. YOUR NOT WORTH TAKING CARE OF. YOU’RE WEAK. AND LAZY. YOU JUST SAT AND WATCHED AS THE EVIL PEOPLE YOU DEFENDED WENT AND MURDERED ME. AS THEY MURDERED UNDYNE. AS THEY MURDERED HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE. I HATE YOU, SANS. I’M GLAD YOU’RE DYING,” Papyrus said. Sans felt more pain within his soul than his body. His own brother hated him. The most important thing in the world to Sans was happy that he was dying. Papyrus left as all surroundings went away. Sans dropped to his knees and sobbed. 

Sans then felt all the horrible feelings. He felt depressed. Sans felt angry. Sans felt anxious. Everything hurt. His soul throbbed. His mind throbbed. Sans’s cut throbbed. Sans began to wonder why he even existed if he was such a failure. He couldn’t stop Frisk from self-harming. He couldn’t stop Chara from killing him. Papyrus hated Sans. What was there even left in the world for the skeleton? Sans sobbed and fell forward. 

Suddenly, Sans was back on the couch. He felt the familiar cushions and he felt his head laying on the arm rest. Sans’s eyes were shut closed. There was a fluffy blanket on top of him. Sans’s eyes fluttered open and he saw his brother asleep sitting in a chair in front of Sans. Then, Sans’s head throbbed. It was a horrible, extreme pain. Sans began to cry. He was so happy. The stuff that happened with Frisk, Chara, and Papyrus... that was all just a bad dream. Sans was still alive, and his brother still cared about him. Chara was still good and dead and Frisk hadn’t self-harmed more. Well, Sans wasn’t so sure on that final thing, but he hoped that Frisk hadn’t self-harmed more. 

Then, Papyrus awoke with a start. He looked at Sans and smiled at his brother who was having a very painful hangover. Papyrus let out a happy sigh and said, “AH, SANS, I SEE YOU’RE AWAKE AND WELL. I’M GLAD TO SEE THAT YOU AREN’T VOMITING ANYMORE!” Sans smiled back at his bro. Both of them giggled and Sans sat up. The two just stared at one another for a little while. 

Then, Sans spoke. “i’m happy to see ya, bro. i really am.” They smiled for a little longer. They both felt rather happy at the moment. Sure, there were some sad things going on, but at least they’d always have each other! Nothing could separate the skelebros.


	3. Sharing Sad Secrets

After a while, Papyrus decided it was time to go ahead and make breakfast. It had been a very long night for the Great Papyrus, for he was constantly making sure Sans was alright. For some reason, he cried while sleeping. That worried Papyrus. As he stood up, Papyrus turned to his lazybones brother. “SANS, HOW ABOUT YOU GO CHECK ON FRISK WHILE I MAKE SPAGHETTI?” Papyrus requested. That was something that would probably help his brother get back to reality if he was still drunk or if he was having a hangover. Papyrus waited for a response. 

“sure, papy. also, um, did you hear any crying or screaming coming from the restroom while frisk was in there? no reason at all why i’m askin’!” Sans suspiciously said. Papyrus recognized that Sans did have a reason, but he would respect his brother’s privacy. Trust was something Papyrus believed in a lot. As he stood up to go into the kitchen, Papyrus answered his brother. 

“NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT, SANS, I THINK THAT I MAY HAVE HEARD FRISK CRYING WHILE SHE WAS IN THERE. THAT IS PROBABLY ANOTHER REASON WHY YOU SHOULD GO AND CHECK ON HER. I’M WORRIED FOR FRISK, SANS. SHE SEEMS TO BE STRUGGLING REALLY HARD WITH CHARA BEING DEAD. IT MUST REALLY HURT TO LOSE SOMEONE YOU LOVE. SANS, DID YOU FEEL LIKE FRISK DOES WHEN DAD DIED?” Papyrus asked. Frisk was most likely crying while she was in the bathroom the previous night. Either that or she was laughing, but because of what had happened in the previous days, Papyrus assumed that she was crying. And Papyrus felt a lot of empathy and sympathy for Frisk. Papyrus cared about everyone’s mental and emotional states a lot. 

“uh... yeah. i'm gonna go check on the kid now, papy. see ya when breakfast is done,” Sans replied to his brother. Papyrus felt like something was off for Sans. And Frisk. Frisk was acting strangely after the first day that Chara died, and now Sans was also acting strangely. Papyrus decided to interrogate them later. Sans started to walk to the stairs, but then turned around to see his brother. “uh, papy? where did the kid sleep?” Sans asked. 

Papyrus sighed and looked at Sans. “SANS, FRISK SLEPT ON THE FLOOR IN MY ROOM. WHERE ELSE WOULD SHE SLEEP? IT’S NOT LIKE ANYONE BUT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SLEEP IN YOUR FILTHY ROOM. YOU NEED TO CLEAN SOON, BROTHER. NOW, CHECK ON FRISK! I’LL BE MAKING SPAGHETTI,” Papyrus answered. He was a bit annoyed, but then Papyrus remembered that Sans was drunk earlier. Also, Frisk did seem to try to refuse sleeping in Papyrus’s room a lot. Papyrus then figured that maybe he was being a too harsh. “SORRY FOR BEING ANNOYED, SANS,” Papyrus apologized. Sans nodded as if he was saying ‘you’re welcome’ as he turned to face the stairs again. Papyrus watched his brother climb the flight. Then, the cool dude went into the kitchen and grabbed the container of spaghetti. Papyrus gasped. 

This couldn’t be happening. Only at the end of the world, only on the worst days, only during the saddest moments in history could this happen. It was horrifying. Papyrus felt tears begin to form in his eyes as he crushed the box of spaghetti. Today was a bad day. Papyrus was in disbelief. There was none. Nothing left for him. Papyrus sighed and unfolded the crushed box of spaghetti as he felt his tears streaming down his face. Papyrus was out of spaghetti. 

Then, Papyrus heard Frisk and Sans yelling at each other. Frisk was yelling stuff to Sans like ‘I’m not doing it!’ and ‘Stop assuming that I do that each time I go in there!’ while Sans was screaming stuff like ‘i’m just worried, kid!’ and ‘i just care aboutchya!’ which made Papyrus curious. What was going on? Papyrus questioned if he should go and find out what was going on, but he respected their privacy too much. While he walked to the bottom of the stairs, Papyrus wiped away his tears. 

“SANS! FRISK! WE’RE OUT OF SPAGHETTI! I’LL BE BACK, OKAY?! BE NICE! SEE YOU SOON,” Papyrus yelled as he walked to the door. He heard the human and the skeleton stop yelling at one another for a moment to listen to Papyrus. Papyrus smiled as the resumed their screaming fit at each other. At least they listened to him. Papyrus made sure he was ready to head over to the shop. Once he was sure he was, Papyrus opened the door and epically walked out. The door shut behind him as he heroically posed on his porch. 

Papyrus then skipped down the steps and speed walked over towards the only shop within the happy, chilly, little village called Snowdin Town. Papyrus passed the Librarby, Grillby’s, the Gyfting Tree, and a house before a Buni stopped him. This Buni was a light tan color with big brown spots on his face. He was glaring at Papyrus as he tapped the skeleton on the shoulder. “Hey, are you that skeleton that hangs out with the two humans?” the Buni asked. 

Papyrus turned around so that he and the Buni were facing each other. Papyrus replied to the Buni’s glare with a cheerful, encouraging smile. Then, in response to his question, Papyrus said, “YES, I AM INDEED THE SKELETON WHO HANGS OUT WITH FRISK AND CHARA. OR, HANGED OUT WITH CHARA. BUT YES, I AM THAT SKELETON! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BUT YOU MAY CALL ME PAPYRUS. IT’S GOOD TO MEET YOU, MISTER...” The Buni stared at Papyrus angrily while the happy skeleton answered. 

Then, the Buni retorted to Papyrus. “I’m Pouri. So, one of the humans are dead?” Pouri asked. Papyrus sadly nodded. Pouri smirked. Was he happy that Chara was dead? Papyrus hoped not, because that would be rather mean. Being mean was one of the things Papyrus didn’t believe in. “Good. So, the other human, are they still living? And if so, do you consider yourself their friend?” Papyrus nodded twice, which got two big grins from Pouri. Then, the Buni punched the skeleton. 

“NYOO! OW, WHY DID YOU HURT ME, POURI?” Papyrus asked. A sharp, magical carrot was summoned by Pouri. It flew into gloved hand of the Great Papyrus. Papyrus winced twice. The first was from the carrot and the second was from an uppercut that the angry Buni did to the skeleton. Papyrus refused to fight back. Pacifism was something that Papyrus believed in. 

“I hurt you because you’re friends with the enemy! I heard rumors that one of the humans released the six souls we spent a couple of years getting, which is horrible! And one of them is evil! They killed my friend’s nephew! You are trying to be friends with a murderer, so I’m showing you what’ll happen to you. I’m not going to kill you, though. Just beat you within inches of death,” Pouri said. Papyrus was scared of this Buni. He was very mean and angry. Pouri sent more attacks towards Papyrus. 

Three more sharp carrots were shot at the skeleton. Two bones impaled the carrots as Papyrus turned his soul yellow. The third carrot impaled Papyrus’s chest. He yelled out in pain as his soul reverted back to its usual, white color. Bystanders grouped around to watch the fight. Nobody was stopped Pouri, though. They were just watching. The angry Buni kicked at Papyrus twice before turning around at punching him in the chest. Papyrus felt his HP lowering as he fell to the ground. Suddenly, a set of hands appeared upon Pouri’s shoulders. Then Papyrus felt a pair of hands appear on his. 

The skeleton watched as a human threw Pouri to the ground. Frisk had come to save Papyrus. Pouri stood up and ran away. Frisk and Papyrus watched him do so. Then, all of the bystanders fearfully went back to what they were doing. Papyrus turned his head to see his lazy brother behind him. “you okay, papy? and what did that jerk say to you?” Sans asked. He watched as Papyrus began to heal himself. 

Frisk walked over to Papyrus and stared at him with a sorta blank stare that was also really sad at the same time, which made little sense. Papyrus come to the conclusion that human expressions were weird. Then, the Great Papyrus answered his lazybones brother’s question. “I’M DOING WELL ENOUGH. POURI SAID THAT FRISK AND CHARA ARE- FRISK IS EVIL AND CHARA WAS EVIL. I TRIED TO TELL HIM OTHERWISE, BUT HE BEAT ME UP BEFORE I COULD SAY ANYTHING,” Papyrus explained. Sans and Frisk listened. Frisk seemed to become more sad while Papyrus answered. 

Sans helped his brother stand up. Then, the short skeleton said, “hey, papy and frisk, howsabout we head home? i'm fine skipping breakfast and brunch today. also, i would like for frisk to tell you something, papyrus. it's important stuff to be shared that should be shared,” Sans said. He stared at Frisk while he spoke. Papyrus was nervous about what Frisk had to say. It seemed as if, from how Sans was talking, that it was a very sad and bad matter. Papyrus looked at Frisk. Her eyes were now a reddish purple. Interesting. Papyrus saw tears begin to form in those reddish-purple eyes. Papyrus was sure that whatever Frisk had to say was going to be sad. 

Papyrus stood up and walked over towards Frisk. He embraced her as she began to sob. Papyrus felt bad for the girl. Frisk had watched the person she cared about most throw themselves in front of her and then die because of that. Papyrus, full of empathy and compassion, said, “DO NOT WORRY, FRISK. LET US HEAD HOME AND THEN YOU CAN TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON THERE, ALRIGHT? I’M ALWAYS HERE TO TALK WITH YOU IF YOU NEED IT. FRISK... I’M WORRIED ABOUT YOU.” Frisk began to sob as she fell to the ground. Papyrus shushed her as he picked her up. Sans and Papyrus walked back to their house as Frisk tried to stop crying while in the tall skeleton’s arms. 

Sans opened the door for himself, his brother, and the depressed human. They came inside and Sans sat on the couch. Papyrus laid Frisk down on the couch. Then, Papyrus sat on the chair that was still in the living room from the previous night. They waited a couple minutes for Frisk to calm down before Sans was tired of waiting. “kid,” he said, “i think it’s time ya told papy. you can trust me and him. we won’t tell anyone, we’ll just help you out when you need to tell others. m'kay, frisk?” Frisk began to calm down. Papyrus gave a tired smile as the girl wiped her tears and sat up. 

“U- uhm, Papyrus...? I... the day that she d- died, I mean, the d- day that Chara died. That’s when I... um. After you went u- up to your room, I went and I- I mean I went into the bathroom. A- and while I was in the bathroom, I... I c- c- committed- I did- I... I cut m- myself. . .” Frisk answered. She began to cry, and then to sob. Frisk seemed reluctant to answer, but she really seemed to want to answer at the same time. Papyrus just stared at her for a moment. He was so confused. 

Why would Frisk do such a thing to herself? She didn’t really have any reason to dislike herself. Frisk hadn’t done anything bad. I mean, Papyrus understood why Chara had committed self-harm. She had gone and killed everyone a couple hundred times. Frisk hadn’t done anything like that! Well, she did kill Papyrus once and then everyone once. But Frisk seemed to have accepted that. At least, Papyrus thought she accepted that. He believed he was right. So, why did Frisk hurt herself? Did she just do it because Chara was dead? Papyrus hoped not. He hoped that she didn’t choose self-harm over talking it out with Sans or himself. Papyrus was so nervous and worried for Frisk. 

Papyrus just stared at the sobbing, emotionally destroyed Frisk that was sitting on the couch in front of him. He inspected her sleeves. Her right sleeve seemed to be red. Was that red with... blood? Papyrus decided to point that out, and he had a couple words to say. “FRISK, FIRST THINGS FIRST I WANT TO SAY THAT WE ARE HERE FOR YOU. NOT JUST SANS AND I, BUT UNDYNE, ALPHYS, ASGORE, TORIEL, AND ASRIEL, TOO! WE ALL WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY IN YOUR LIFE. IF YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU WANT TO HURT YOURSELF AGAIN... COME TO ME OR ONE OF THEM FIRST, OKAY? WE DON’T WANT YOU TO HURT YOURSELF. I MEAN, LOOK HOW HARD ALL OF US TRIED TO STOP CHARA! EACH TIME SHE DID IT, YOU GUYS STOPPED HER! AND I WOULD HAVE STOPPED HER TOO IF I HAD KNOWN. WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO NOT FIND OUT IF YOU DO MORE SELF-HARM. FRISK, THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT CARE ABOUT YOU. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CARE ABOUT YOU. I AM HERE FOR YOU. AS A FRIEND. AS A BEST FRIEND. FRISK, DO YOU HEAR ME?” Papyrus said. He felt tears appear in his eyesockets and then flow out. He didn’t actively cry, though. The tears were just there. Frisk nodded while still sobbing. Papyrus smiled at put his left hand on Frisk’s right shoulder. Frisk looked up at him. Her eyes had tears constantly forming and then dropping out of her eye and streaming down her cheek. Papyrus then said, “FRISK, I THINK THAT YOU MIGHT BE BLEEDING STILL. AND, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, PROMISE ON MY SOUL AND THE SOULS OF MY FRIENDS, THAT WE ARE HERE FOR YOU. OKAY?” 

Frisk sobbed and nodded. Papyrus and Sans watched as grabbed her right sleeve with her left hand and pulled it up. Sans’s eyes went out and Papyrus gasped and covered his mouth. Sans seemed angry and sad. Papyrus was horrified. Three big, long, bloody strips went across most of the inside of Frisk’s forearm. Some of the blood seemed to be dry while another part of it seemed to be actively bleeding. Frisk winced as some of her tears fell off her face and landed on her cuts. She looked up and Papyrus with a weak, hurting smile. Papyrus just stared at her. Why would anyone commit such an atrocity? And to themselves? “S- see? I h- hurt myself. J- just like she did... Just like how Chara did...” Frisk cried. Then, she stood up and grabbed Papyrus in a hug and began to sob. “I’M SO, S- SO SORRY! I D- DON'T KNOW WHY I DID IT! I JUST WANTED T- TO DO IT... AND NOW I’M FOREVER MARKED WITH THESE HORRIBLE CUTS THAT I’VE DONE TO MYSELF! P- Papyrus. . . S- Sans. . . C- can you guys f- forgive me...?” 

Papyrus took a moment to just absorb what was happening. Then, her embraced Frisk back and said, “FRISK. WE DIDN’T WANT TO KNOW IF YOU COULD HURT YOURSELF. AND WE DON’T WANT YOU TO HURT YOURSELF LIKE HOW CHARA DID. WHAT SHE DID WAS HORRIBLE. IT’S OKAY TO NOT KNOW WHY YOU DID IT. NOW, WE JUST NEED TO BE SURE YOU DON’T DO IT AGAIN. I’M SURE ALPHYS WILL TRY TO FIND SOME WAY TO REMOVE YOUR CUTS WHEN SHE KNOWS. FRISK, I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I ALWAYS, ALWAYS WILL FORGIVE YOU.” 

Frisk sobbed while she was held in the arms of the great, empathetic, caring Papyrus. Papyrus was hiding his emotions of fear and depression while he cradled the sobbing human in his arms. Frisk was clenching her cuts, which was making them bleed more. She didn’t seem to be hurting from it, though. Papyrus watched Frisk carefully. She seemed to be in deep, horrible emotional pain. Like she was trapped in a giant hole underground that there was no way out of. Well, in a figurative sense. She was also indeed physically trapped in a giant hole underground that there was no way out of. Sans shortcut away somewhere. Papyrus just kept comforting Frisk while she sobbed. 

Blood was everywhere now. All over the carpet, chair, Frisk herself, and Papyrus himself. The skeleton felt so much sympathy and empathy for Frisk. How horrible it must feel to have done something as horrible as this to yourself. The Great Papyrus was going to be sure that Frisk would never do something like this to herself again. She didn’t deserve these long, bleeding cuts across her arm. 

While Papyrus was embracing the depressed, emotionally unstable human, she was saying horrible things about herself. Papyrus kept replying with nicer things about Frisk. When Frisk said that she was a horrible person, Papyrus replied that she was a great person. When Frisk said that she got Chara killed, Papyrus said that Chara saved Frisk from Bane, and it was Bane that got her killed. When Frisk said that she wanted to not exist, Papyrus said that no one else would want to exist if she was gone. He did his best to comfort her while he awaited his brother’s return. 

While Frisk hurt herself emotionally more and Papyrus healed her emotionally more, Sans eventually returned. He had a grocery bag. Papyrus watched him as he grabbed two boxes out of the bag. Frisk turned around and watched too. Papyrus made sure to keep a close eye on Frisk while he watched Sans, though. Papyrus could still remember that when somebody was comforting Chara, she had always tried to run away. The tall, great skeleton hoped that Frisk wouldn’t try that. 

As Sans examined and opened the boxes, Frisk did not try to run away. She just sat and sobbed and watched. Papyrus was relieved by this. He, too, watched the boxes. The first one was labeled Physical Cut Healing Cream. The second box was labeled Arm Bandages for Wounds. Papyrus instantly realized what this was for. Sans had left to go get things to put over Frisk’s self-harm scars. But then Papyrus saw that there was something else in the bag. He would check it out later. 

“c’mere, frisk. we're gonna put this stuff on your arm, m’kay?” Sans said as he pulled a little tube out of the first box. So that tube held the Physical Cut Healing Cream, huh? Papyrus looked at Frisk’s arms for a bit more as Frisk walked over to the couch. The cuts were horrifying. Why would somebody do this? Harming yourself was not a happy thing. Frisk set her arm out in front of Sans and herself. Papyrus stood up off the chair and walked over. Then, he sat on the floor next to Frisk. “this is gonna hurt, kiddo,” Sans said as he squirted a little of the cream onto his fingertip. It was a brownish green color. 

As Sans spread the cream on Frisk’s first cut, she began to strongly sob. Papyrus put his hand on Frisk’s shoulder in a comforting way. Frisk calmed down a bit as Sans put some more of the greenish cream on his finger again. As Sans rubbed the cream on her arm, Frisk winced and began to sob more. Papyrus felt so bad for Frisk. She had cut herself, tried to hide it, failed, shared with Papyrus, and the have to have this painful cream rubbed on her cuts. “AAAAAAaaack!” Frisk yelled as Sans applied the cream for a third time. Papyrus felt so bad for Frisk and wished that she didn’t have to go through this. Papyrus wished that Frisk hadn’t done this. 

Frisk sobbed as Sans wiped his fingers on his tank top. Papyrus looked at Frisk and could tell that this was very painful and not fun for her. Well, it wasn’t fun for anyone. Sans opened up the box of bandages and began to wrap Frisk’s arms. Over and over, Frisk just kept saying, “I’m sorry... I’m so, s- so sorry. . .” Papyrus hated that she was doing that. He could tell that she was so sorry, and it just made her feel worse each time she said it, Papyrus could tell. 

“there, you're all wrapped up, kiddo. now, howsabout we... play a game? i know that i’ve got uno somewhere around here...” Sans said. Frisk looked up at Sans with somewhat excited yet still depressed eyes. Papyrus felt his own eyes light up at the thought of playing such a fun game with his brother and his friend! The Great Papyrus stood up, picked Frisk up, ran into the kitchen, and set her down in a chair. Frisk seemed very startled by Papyrus’s act. She looked as if it may have hurt. Papyrus instantly regretted. He sat down next to Frisk at the table. 

Frisk and Papyrus waited for Sans to find Uno. Papyrus stared at Frisk with a face of apologetic pleads. Frisk said to the skeleton, “It’s okay, Papyrus. You didn’t do anything wrong... unlike me. You’re fine, I forgive you.” Frisk rested her head on the table. Papyrus put one of his hands on Frisk’s back. She looked up at him. 

“FRISK, YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG! WELL, EXCEPT FOR YOUR SELF-HARM, THAT WAS WRONG. BUT OTHER THAN HURTING YOURSELF, YOU’VE DONE NOTHING WRONG!” Papyrus said. Frisk wiped away her tears and smiled at Papyrus. He smiled back. Frisk wiped her tears again and began to stop crying. 

“Thank you, Papyrus...” Frisk said. Her reddish-purple eyes let loose one more pair of sad, blue tears before Frisk finally stopped crying. Papyrus felt so good inside. He had helped Frisk become a bit happier. Every bit counted. Every bit helped stop Frisk from going down the dark, scary, depressed path of self-harm and suicide. The path that Chara had taken... 

Suddenly Sans appeared in the kitchen. In one hand he held Uno and in the other he held the grocery bag. Sans set the bag in front of Frisk and sat down next to her. Sans opened up Uno and began to shuffle the cards as he spoke. “so, frisk, in that bag are a couple shirts for ya. i ordered them custom made for you a couple days ago. also, uh, just ignore the bottom two. but, uh, do both of ya know how to play?” Sans asked. Papyrus nodded as Frisk pulled shirts out of the bag. 

Papyrus and Sans watched as Frisk pulled the first two shirts out of the bag. They were the same shirt. Both were actually almost identical to Frisk’s current shirt. They both had two purple stripes across her chest, they were both blue, but there were two differences. The collar had Frisk’s name sewn into it using purple thread. The second difference was that the shirt was short-sleeved. Frisk was smiling, but she was also confused. Papyrus was also a bit confused. “Uh, Sans, these are great, but I don’t think I should wear them. I don’t think I’ll be comfortable letting my scars show...” Frisk said. Unfortunately, tears began to form in Frisk’s eyes. 

“YES, SANS. I DON’T THINK THAT FRISK SHOULD WEAR THOSE SHIRTS. I, TOO, THINK THAT THEY ARE GREAT, THOUGH!” Papyrus said. Both he and Frisk were wearing confused expressions as they looked at the lazy skeleton. Sans sighed as he started to speak again, hopefully answering if Frisk was going to wear the short-sleeved shirts. 

“look. i get that frisk now has scars, but who else regularly sees her beside us and our friends? and frisk, now ih can check if you commit any more self-harm. ‘cause i don’t want to see you make more cuts... or...” Sans said. He closed his eyes as he was speaking. Then, he angrily turned towards Frisk and opened his eyes, without any eyes to be seen. With his scary death stare, Sans finished his sentence. “...EXPAND THEM.” 

Frisk broke into sobs. Then, Papyrus realized many things. The first was Sans’s strange question this morning. He asked if Frisk was crying in the restroom in case she was self-harming. The second was that Frisk wasn’t making more cuts, she was just expanding the length of them. That explained the strange reaction from Sans and the dried blood and bleeding blood on Frisk’s arms. The third thing was that Sans had the shirt made so that he could watch Frisk’s arms in case she did do more self-harm. Papyrus realized that this was a pretty good idea from Sans. Then, Papyrus realized that Frisk was sobbing. He instantly went to comfort her. 

Sans set the deck of cards down on the table and stood up. He glared at Frisk with tearfilled, angry eyesockets as he left the kitchen. Unfortunately for Papyrus, this erupted more sobs from Frisk. Papyrus comforted Frisk for a couple minutes. Then, those couple minutes went to an hour. An hour and a half. And then, after two full hours of comforting the depressed human who was regretting all of their self-harm, Papyrus was able to calm Frisk down. Frisk was constantly saying horrible things about herself while Papyrus was retorting to those horrible things about Frisk with the great things about her. Papyrus loathed the fact the Frisk hated herself so much. He just wanted his friend to be happy. 

Once he had comforted her to the point where she wasn’t sobbing or crying, Papyrus looked at Frisk and said, “HUMAN, WHY DON’T YOU GO TO BED? AND HOW ABOUT ON THE COUCH TONIGHT.” Papyrus carefully watched Frisk’s facial expressions while she replied. 

“O- okay... I think it m- might help, anyways!” Frisk said with very, very fake enthusiasm. Papyrus stood up after Frisk stood. Then, he watched and followed her as she walked to the living room and laid down on the couch. Papyrus, still keeping an eye on Frisk, went to the closet and grabbed a blanket and a couple pillows. He came over and handed them to Frisk. She thanked him and made herself comfortable. Papyrus sat down in the chair and watched Frisk as she fell asleep...


	4. Tears, Blood, and Black Goop

Frisk drifted off into sleep like she usually did. She closed her eyes and felt the familiar dark presence of the void come. This was her third night coming into the void and she was already used to it. Frisk really did adapt quick. As the fog appeared, Frisk instantly went looking for Chara. Last night, they had not had a great time and Frisk owed Chara an apology. 

What had happened was Frisk had increased the size of her self-harm cuts. In reality, Frisk had just made six more cuts but exactly aligned to her three cuts that she already had. When she was doing this, Frisk still believed that self-harm was the right way to cope with losing Chara. And unfortunately, because of the pain she inflicted upon herself, Frisk was able to gain one more LOVE. That had really upset Chara. The two girls had just sat there the previous night. Chara was very upset with Frisk. 

As Frisk kept looking for Chara, she heard the girl’s familiar voice ring out behind her. “Greetings, partner.” Frisk turned around to see Chara standing there. Chara walked over towards Frisk through the fog within the void. Frisk smiled at Chara. Chara somewhat smiled. Frisk began to walk to Chara. When the met, the two girls embraced one another. 

“I missed you. And I’m sorry, Chara,” Frisk said as they ended their embrace. Frisk sat down. Chara followed Frisk’s motions. Chara smiled at Frisk and gripped her right hand with her own left hand. Frisk felt the familiar bulge of the piece of metal they had to put in Chara’s hand when she had cut it open. Frisk looked at her own hand scar. It was almost completely gone. Then, Frisk felt the tug of her sleeve and saw that Chara was pulling up her right sleeve to check for self-harm scars. 

Frisk winced which made Chara nervous. Chara became very nervous as she saw bandages around Frisk’s arm. She quickly looked up and her and Frisk’s gazes met. Chara spoke. “Frisk, why are there bandages around your arm? You better have not hurt yourself more. You know that you have no reason to do that. I made my hundreds of Scars because of the hundreds of people I murdered. You didn’t hurt anyone! It was my spirit that was making you kill, anyways. But, uh, did you hurt yourself more, Frisk?” Chara asked. Frisk could tell that Chara was very, very nervous about these bandages. 

Frisk sighed and looked into Chara’s red-brown eyes. “Look, Chara, I’m done doing self-harm. At least, I’m done for a long while. You, Papyrus, and Sans have convinced me to stop. Sans found out right as I did it, remember? He made me tell Papyrus today. When I showed them my cuts, Sans saw my extensions and got bandages. Papyrus helped me cope with what I’ve done to myself... but I’m done hurting myself. And when we find a way to bring you back, Chara, we’ll make sure that you don’t hurt yourself anymore. Or try to kill yourself. But I’ll find a way to bring you back, Chara. And I’ll try to find a way that doesn’t involve LOVE, either. I think having two Levels Of ViolencE is enough for me. So, the point is ‘m not hurting myself more,” Frisk explained. Chara was smiling and tears were running down her cheeks. They were tears of happiness, though. Something Frisk had not ever seen from Chara. Or at least, Frisk couldn’t remember seeing Chara crying happy tears. 

Chara side-hugged Frisk and smiled. As she looked into Frisk’s reddish-purple eyes, Chara said, “Frisk, I’m so proud of you. You can’t understand how proud of you I am. You were able to do something that I wanted to do but couldn’t. When you wake up, Frisk, I want you to give Sans my knife so that way I can know that you aren’t doing anything bad to yourself. And, Frisk?” Chara said. She smiled with the biggest, happiest smile as she talked to Frisk. This was a very happy, wholesome encounter for the girls. 

Then, the happiness faded away as Chara muttered something under her breath. Frisk could just barely hear her depressing words. What Chara said upset Frisk greatly. “And I don’t want to come back. I don’t want to live because I don’t matter. I don’t want to live because I’m a terrible person. I don’t want to come back to life because I’ve done nothing good in my horrible life...” Frisk watched as tears began to stream out of Chara’s eyes. Frisk clenched Chara’s hand tighter. Chara began to sob. 

“Chara, you do matter. You matter to me. I love you, Chara. You aren’t a terrible person, and you’ve done a lot of good things. You helped me remember who I am, you brought Asriel back, you gave Flowey a soul, and you helped me stop feeling bad! You are a good person, Chara. Please, listen to me. I’m bringing you back not only because I love and care about you and I need you, but because I feel I need to make you feel better. I feel that we, and by that I mean myself, Asriel, Papyrus, Sans, Toriel, Asgore, Undyne, and Alphys, need to do better at making you feel better. Okay? Chara, can you please do one last thing for us? Please?” Frisk pleaded after comforting the poor, dead girl. 

“No... I can’t, Frisk. I would if it was as simple as that. It’s just... There’s someone else here in the void. They made me swear not to let you know that they existed. In fact, he- I mean they are probably very upset with me right now. They’re doing something for me. Once he’s- I mean, once they’re done with my request, we have to talk. And then I promised I’d stay and keep him- Them, I mean, company. I’m sorry, Frisk,” Chara sobbed in response. Frisk felt an angry presence watching her. She quickly looked up and saw a glimpse of a white and black figure that then teleported away. Frisk felt scared. This person that Chara made a deal with seemed interesting. Very, very interesting. 

“Chara, what if we bring this guy back? Would that work for him and you? Oh, I mean, them and you? Because I need you back, Chara. And they do, too. Asriel, Sans, Undyne, Toriel, Asgore, and Alphys. So please, Chara. Let me bring you back. Please. Please,” Frisk pleaded with Chara. She so desperately wanted to be able to see Chara again. Well, in real life. She wanted to physically be able to hold Chara’s hand and walk throughout the underground like they did. She wanted to explore through all of the areas they had been through so many times. Frisk wanted to be with Chara so badly. So, so badly. 

“I’ll ask them later. But, Frisk, you said that you aren’t going to gain more LOVE, right? Well, then I don’t think you can bring me back. So, there’s no point in even trying to find another way to bring me back. So, I’ll stay here, and that’s final. Okay? I’m sorry, Frisk,” Chara said. Frisk then realized that that was a problem indeed. How would she bring Chara back without LOVE? I mean, Frisk could go ahead and just find a way that didn’t involve hurting herself to gain LOVE. But Frisk knew that there weren’t many ways to gain LOVE. Hurting yourself and hurting others. Those were the only two ways Frisk knew. 

“I’ll try to find a third way to gain Levels Of ViolencE. I’ll find a way that doesn’t involve physically wounding anyone. Nobody has to get hurt that way. Or I’ll have Alphys find a way to bring you back with dust and stuff. And if that doesn’t work... I’ll just hurt myself more. It’s a small price to pay to bring you back to life, Chara. I don’t matter as much as you do,” Frisk said. Chara began to sob. Frisk tried to comfort her, but that didn’t seem to help. Frisk was very, very worried for Chara. Chara just seemed so sad and upset now. She was just crying and wouldn’t let Frisk help her. Frisk hoped that Chara was just overwhelmed by her emotions and not refusing the help. But deep in her soul, Frisk knew that it was just Chara refusing to let her help her. 

Chara wiped away tears from her left eye using her palm and tears from her right eye using the middle of her index finger. Chara buried her head in her knees and sobbed. Frisk wrapped her arms around Chara, but Chara shoved her arms off. Frisk tried to again. This time, Chara shoved Frisk backwards and stood up. Black, goopy tears streamed from Chara’s eyes and the white turned to black. Blood started to flow out of Chara’s mouth. Then, Chara screamed at Frisk. “JuSt lET mE sTAy DeAd!? IS tHAt tOo muCh tO aSk FOr?!” 

Frisk was scared. Frisk was disturbed. Frisk was horrified. Frisk backed away from Chara. Frisk felt tears start to run out of her eyes. Frisk began to sob. Frisk didn’t like whoever this scary person was. Frisk knew that this wasn’t Chara. This was a mean, evil killer. This person in front of her wanted to kill someone. Frisk hoped that the person that wasn’t Chara wouldn’t try and kill her. Frisk curled up in a ball and just sobbed. 

The Chara-like creep just looked at Frisk with very angry eyes. Then, she fell to the ground and began to sob. The black goop, blood, and tears all mixed into a dark red thick liquid in the person’s lap. Frisk watched as not-Chara's hands curled into white fists. Then Frisk watched as they stood up. They slowly and painfully stumbled over to Frisk. Frisk looked up at this scary person who was standing directly in front of her, watching every drip fall from their face, whether it was blood, goop, or a tear. 

As the person kneeled down directly in front of Frisk. Frisk let out a scared sob and then yelled, “P- PLEASE DON’T HURT ME! YOU’RE NOT CHARA! CHARA WOULDN’T DO THIS!” Frisk sobbed and prepared to be hurt by the creep. She strongly shut her eyes closed and prepared for the impact. Frisk sobbed. Then, Frisk stopped for one moment. She heard sobbing. As Frisk let herself keep sobbing. She let an eye slowly open. She saw the person laying down in front of her. Frisk then realized that this was actually Chara. Frisk had found this out when she saw Chara try to choke herself. 

Notice the word try. When she noticed this suicidal act by her friend, Frisk quickly crawled over and stopped Chara from killing herself by forcefully ripping her arms away from her neck. Then, Frisk tried to grab Chara’s arms. After a bit of a fight, where Chara was trying to defend her arms from Frisk’s hands, Frisk was able to wrap her hand around Chara’s wrists. Now that Frisk had Chara’s arms restrained, Frisk hoped that Chara would give up on the suicidal-ness. Unfortunately, Chara still wanted to experience pain, so Chara began to stop on her own shin. Frisk saw this and began to think about how she could stop Chara’s rash actions. As the girl was hurting herself, Chara let out a scream of agony. Then, repeating the process of inflicting pain upon herself.. Frisk then forcefully set her legs across Chara’s. Chara began to sob. Frisk smiled as she thought that she had ended Chara’s attempts to hurt herself. 

Again, notice the wording there. Frisk smiled as she THOUGHT that she had ended Chara’s attempts to hurt herself. THOUGHT. Frisk realized that she had thought incorrectly when she felt blood touch her fingers. Frisk looked at Chara’s hand and saw that she had dug her fingernails into her hands. Frisk sighed as she realized what she had to do. Frisk laid herself down on top of Chara. Frisk grabbed both of Chara’s hands. At first, Frisk felt Chara resist her act. After a couple seconds, Chara just gave up. It seemed that Chara finally understood that Frisk WOULD NOT let her hurt herself. Frisk looked into Chara’s eyes, which were now back to normal. Frisk noticed that Chara was no longer having blood stream out of her mouth, too. 

“Chara?” Frisk said, hoping to talk things out with Chara. Normally whenever someone asked Chara to share her feelings, it would end badly, but this time, Frisk had some strange hope that it would end differently. Unfortunately, Frisk felt that it would go as usual. Frisk would get Chara’s attention, Chara would go ‘Yeah?’ and Frisk would ask the question. Then, Chara would go silent and then run off. Later, Frisk would always find her either trying to kill herself of committing self-harm. It was a horrible process. And still, Frisk had some strange hope that Chara would break the sad loop. 

“Yeah?” Chara asked. Frisk began to feel nervous. This was indeed exactly how she responded each time. Well, it was either ‘Yeah?,’ ‘Frisk?,’ or ‘What?’ but still. It was always one of those three responses. Any of those three responses would escalate this situation badly. Or at least, increases the chances that the cycle to self-harm or suicide attempts would repeat. Again. 

Frisk nervously clenched Chara’s hands tighter. “How are you feeling? And please, Chara, answer me and answer me honestly. I want, no, I need to help you. I think that you’re emotionally unstable and I’ve been trying to help you, but you keep pushing me away, and I don’t like that. So please, Chara, please let me help you. But above everything, please don’t hurt yourself or try to kill yourself because I asked this question. I don’t like it when you do that, because every time I asked you how you were feeling when you were alive, I would always find you self-harming or trying to commit suicide. And I hate that. The one thing I hate about you is your urge to make yourself suffer and die. Chara, I care about you and I need you in my life. If you’re suffering, then I’m suffering. And I don’t like to suffer, so please, Chara, don’t suffer. At least, don’t suffer so I can be happy. Okay? Um, but first, how are you feeling? And, uh, sorry for getting really emotional right now... I just really do care about you, Chara. It’s what love like ours will do,” Frisk said. Tears came out of her eyes as she let out a sob. Frisk, once finished talking, looked at Chara with a weak smile and dry eyes full of hope. 

Chara replied to Frisk with a number of tears greater than the amount that Frisk shed. What she said was, “I... I don’t really feel like I’m a good person. I don’t like who I am. I feel like a horrible piece of trash that’s unreliable for the people that need me. Each time someone needs to fall back on me, instead of catching them, I let them fall and get hurt on the ground. And the things that I made you do and the things that I did... I just don’t trust myself anymore. I’m afraid of who I was, and I’m even more afraid that I’ll become her again if you bring me back. And then there’s my self-harm... heh. I’m afraid I would hurt myself more if you bring me back. Hell, I’ve already hurt myself more and I’m dead! And since I like death better than life, who knows what I’ll do to myself. Suicide. I would try to commit it again, I know that. And I would fail horribly. For some stupid reason, you and the others care about me. Nobody should care about me. Not you. Not Asriel. Not Sans. Not Undyne. Not Mom. Not Dad. Not Papyrus. Not Alphys. And especially not me. Frisk, There’s another thing, though. I... I don’t want to be alive because if I’m alive again, I would try to hurt and kill myself if I’m alive, and it’s upsetting when I try to kill and hurt myself, and I don’t want to hurt and kill myself but I do if I’m alive, and I just... Ah, what the hell am I trying to say? Frisk... I just don’t want to put you through that again. I’ve hurt you. Physically, I’ve stabbed you through your hand when I tried to kill myself. Mentally, I’ve taken away chances for you to remember things and learn more things. I don’t think I even have to say all the crap I’ve done to hurt you emotionally. And socially, people in the underground hate you and all our friends because you guys care about me. That’s how I’m feeling. I just hate myself. I’m horrible. I feel horrible. I am horrible! And... and I just don’t want to be alive again. I’m a piece of shit, Frisk. So, um, how are you feeling?” Throughout the emotional venting, Chara had gone into complete sobs. Frisk felt happy that Chara was able to tell her how she felt. It was a lot better than previously. 

Since Chara didn’t seem like she was going to hurt herself of try to kill herself, Frisk released her hands but stayed on top of Chara. It seemed to help both of them emotionally. Chara looked at Frisk, hoping she would respond. Frisk looked at Chara and smiled. “You want to know how I’m feeling? Well, I feel bad for you. But I also feel...” Frisk said. She paused to explain what she was going to say by kissing Chara. Chara’s pink cheeks quickly became red. “... like I care about you and love you.” Frisk smiled at Chara. Then, Chara frowned, and Frisk realized why. She was waking up. 

Chara looked at Frisk and said, “Well, Frisk... I want you to go see Alphys with Sans, Undyne, and Papyrus. Talk with Alphys about bringing someone back with the void. Don’t seem obvious with it. Make sure that Alphys and Undyne spend some time together, too. Okay? Just... Just do that for me.” Frisk clenched Chara’s hands and they both cried while Frisk returned to reality. 

Frisk awoke on the green couch. She felt her sleeve around her bandages around her self-harm cuts on her arm. Frisk felt a tear run down her cheek as she opened her eyes. She saw Papyrus asleep in the chair that he sat in the previous two nights. Frisk sneakily slid out of the blanket on top of her and tiptoed over to the kitchen and looked at the two shirts and grocery bag on top of the kitchen table. 

Frisk decided to go and check what the bottom two shirts were. Sans had seemed very worried about them. What could be so bad? Frisk reached inside the grocery bag, doing her best not to hit the edges because they make a lot of noise. Frisk felt the top shirt in her grasp. She made sure to grab the bottom shirt, too. When Frisk pulled them out, she realized why Sans had been so sad. 

The light green short-sleeve shirts felt so heavy. The yellow stripes felt like fire in Frisk’s hand. Tears streamed down her eyes. Frisk read the name on the collar. CHARA. The yellow text invoked such emotions for Frisk. She realized so many things, but the emotions just overwhelmed her. Sans had gotten matching shirts for Frisk and Chara just so he could watch Chara. But then, Chara died and Frisk self-harmed. 

Frisk had taken the first purpose and make herself the new purpose. As tears streamed down Frisk’s cheeks silently, she set down both of Chara’s shirt, well, no. These weren’t Chara’s shirts. Chara never received them. Frisk set down the shirts and grabbed one of her own. Frisk wiped away her tears as she walked over to the bathroom. 

As she passed Papyrus, he shuddered and awakened. Papyrus yawned, opened his eyes, and saw Frisk, who was now half-way up the stairs. It was clear that she was going towards the restroom. Papyrus quickly and nervously stood up and looked at Frisk. “UM, HUMAN? YOU ARE GOING TO GO AND HURT YOURSELF THERE, RIGHT? PLEASE DON’T, FRISK. I CARE ABOUT YOU A LOT.” Frisk was surprised because she didn’t realize that he had awoken. 

“U- um, no. I’m just ch- changing into my new shirt,” Frisk cried. She didn’t feel sad, well, she didn’t feel that sad, but she was still crying none the less. Papyrus nervously followed Frisk up the stairs. Frisk didn’t like that nobody trusted her. She went into the bathroom. As Frisk closed the door and locked it, she heard a door from out in the hall open. 

Then, as she was changing, Frisk heard, “heya, frisk. open up the door, there’s no need to hurt yourself. Alright?" So, Sans was also there. And he didn’t trust Frisk. Because who should? Oh, and that must have been the door that she had heard open. But now, Frisk was about disobey Sans directly and probably hurt their trust, but Frisk hoped that after Sans saw that all she was doing was changing into her new shirt, she would be fine. 

As Frisk was done changing, she grabbed her old shirt and opened up the door. Outside, Sans was leaning against Papyrus’s door with a worried expression. Papyrus was pacing the hall. While he walked, he rattled his bones on the railing. When Frisk came out, Sans instantly used his magic to float her up in the air. Then, Papyrus went over to Frisk and grabbed her old shirt and began to search her. Frisk was confused and a bit nervous. “What are you guys doing? As I said, I’m not hurting myself anymore. And I was just changing into my new shirt... Am I that untrustworthy?” Frisk asked. 

In response, Sans sighed, “well, kiddo, you haven’t been the most trustworthy recently. and also, i’m worried aboutchya. but, uh, who do you want to show your cuts to next?” Frisk began to think. She did not like how Sans had phrased that question. ‘Who do you want to show your cuts to next?’ made it sound like the cuts were a cool thing that Frisk was showing off. 

Frisk remembered what Chara had said to her during her dream. Undyne and Alphys. Frisk went ahead and answered the question. “I think that the next people I should confess to about my cuts should be Undyne and Alphys. I feel like we should let them know, because Alphys might be able to help with the bleeding of the cuts and if I ever try to cut myself again, Undyne could help stop me. So, yeah. Undyne and Alphys!” Frisk decided. And then, the three departed. But after Sans set Frisk down again, of course.


	5. Cuts

Frisk was listening to the mushy footsteps of herself and the two skeletons as they approached the hut of Undyne. The dummy was missing, which relieved Frisk. She remembered that it was alive. It would be a bit easier to inform Undyne since the only people that would be watching would be Sans and Papyrus, and the two skeletons already knew about Frisk’s self-harm. As she stepped onto the doormat, Frisk’s anxiety seemed to spark at this moment. She began to regret wanting to inform Undyne about her evil acts. The fish lady was really struggling with emotions before Chara died, but now she seemed to be suffering worse. What would happen when Undyne found out that Frisk was self-harming? 

Poor Undyne with the bipolar depression. It must be horrible for her. Being happy and sad, constantly switching emotions throughout the day. One moment you’re having fun with your friends, the next you’re feeling like the worst person in the world. Frisk could only imagine how horrible that type of depression would be. 

Frisk thought that if she had bipolar depression, she might have a lot more cuts than she did currently. She would probably be talking to her friends and then she would be sitting in the bathroom, drawing the cold, sharp blade of the knife across her tender, untouched parts of her wounded arm. Frisk didn’t want to think about causing herself more scars, though. That was a sad, scary topic for her to think about. Frisk pushed those thoughts out of her head. 

Frisk realized that she was directly in front of the jaw-like entry way to Undyne’s house. The teeth-like door was shut in the normal horizontal way and Frisk was nervous to knock. She turned her head and looked back at Sans and Papyrus. They both nodded, encouraging Frisk to go ahead and open it. Frisk lifted up her right hand and prepared to knock, but then she decided it would be better to knock with her left hand because that way she could hide her right arm and bandages and scars behind her back. That way, Undyne wouldn’t find out about Frisk’s self-harm right away. 

Frisk pounded her sweaty hand against the door, her knuckles turning white. Frisk was very nervous as she counted the seconds it took for Undyne to come to the door. One second. Frisk felt like she might be able to inform Undyne about her horrible scars of self-harm without feeling too terribly horrible. In fact, Undyne might really be able to help Frisk! Well, help her not commit self-harm more. That’s the main reason she wanted to come here. Well, actually the second reason. The first was Chara’s request. 

Two seconds. Frisk then remembered about Undyne’s bipolar depression. She had forgotten so quickly because of her anxiety about sharing. Maybe telling her about the scary tears that Frisk had inflicted upon her own arm wasn’t the best idea. That might cause Undyne to grow very, very sad. Frisk tried to shove one thought out of her head. It was a horrible, bad thought. 

Three seconds. The thought stayed in Frisk’s head. What if Frisk’s self-harm made Undyne so sad and scared that she herself started to self-harm? Frisk hated thinking about that, but unfortunately, it was still a possibility. Frisk didn’t want to be the cause of anyone’s self-harm, especially that of her friends. It would be horrible if Frisk did start Undyne’s self-harm, though. Terrible. 

Four seconds. Frisk didn’t trust this idea anymore. She stepped backwards one step. She didn’t want to show Undyne the scars that she had made upon her arm. Frisk regretted coming here. She glanced back at Sans and Papyrus. She could tell that they saw the fear and worry in her. Frisk desperately wanted to run. She stepped back another step. Her feet were at the edge of Undyne’s doormat. 

Five seconds. Frisk took another step back. This was a very stupid, very horrible idea. What was Frisk thinking? Frisk just shouldn’t have hurt herself. If she wasn’t stupid, Frisk would have known that before making the horrible slits across her forearm. Frisk hated herself a lot at the moment. Frisk stepped back again. Now, both feet were on the blue and black mushy sponge-like floor of the area called Waterfall. 

Six seconds. Frisk felt tears form in her eyes as her bottom lip trembled. Frisk stepped backwards again. She couldn’t do this. Frisk couldn’t emotionally take the responsibility of informing Undyne about the self-harm that she had tried to hide after she committed the atrocious act. Frisk let out a little sob as she stepped backwards again. Frisk was almost to the skeletons. 

Seven seconds. Frisk stepped backwards again. She would not do this. Frisk could not do this. Too much. This was way, way too much. No. Frisk wouldn’t. Informing Undyne wasn’t the right thing for Frisk to do. She had other things she should do before telling Undyne! Like... like... Frisk couldn’t come up with anything else to do. She just couldn’t tell Undyne right now. Frisk took another step backwards. She was now side by side with the Great Papyrus. 

Eight seconds. Frisk felt her cold tears collect themselves at the bottom of her eyelid and the fly outwards, streaming down her warm face, running over her currently reddish cheeks, and then falling off the poor, depressed girl’s chin. Frisk took a step back and two steps to the side. She couldn’t do this. Frisk was afraid. She was hiding behind Papyrus now. She hoped Undyne wouldn’t see her. Frisk hoped that everyone would just forget that she existed. Frisk wished that she could RESET and remove the cuts she had made. 

Nine seconds. As more tears fled from Frisk’s reddish-purple eyes, the door opened up. Peeking out from behind the tall, amazing skeleton, Frisk saw Undyne standing there. The fish lady was wearing her usual black and blue wetsuit. Undyne’s hair was down and she was holding a tissue. Tears were leaking out of Undyne’s eyes, too. Quickly, the captain of the royal guard wiped her eyes with the tissue and tossed it into her pocket. Undyne looked at Papyrus and Sans and smiled. Once the fish woman saw Frisk, she frowned. 

Frisk grew worried. Did Undyne already know what Frisk had done? Or did Undyne just suspect that Frisk had come just to inform her about something terrible. Usually, Frisk never had anything good to say. It was always bad, horrible things. Frisk tried to stop her tears to cancel any suspicions Undyne had if possible. Frisk reached for her long sleeves, but then remembered that she was wearing her new shirt. Frisk went to wipe her tears with her right hand. 

Undyne stepped backwards in shock from something. Then, the fish lady went ahead and stuttered out a sad greeting. “Oh, hey p- punks. Why don’t you guys come in? Is everything okay with you, Fr- Frisk?” Frisk grew more nervous. Then, she realized what had made Undyne become shocked. Frisk was stupid enough to wipe her tears with the arm she was trying to hide. Frisk quickly threw her right arm behind her back again. 

“NYEH HEH HEH! HELLO, UNDYNE! SURE, WE’LL COME IN. HOW ARE YOU DOING, UNDYNE? YOU SEEM RATHER SAD AT THE MOMENT, DEAR FRIEND,” Papyrus said cheerfully with a hint of worry. Frisk was glad that the great skeleton mentioned nothing about Frisk, and especially grateful that there were no hints to the self-harm that was committed. The tall skeleton walked over to Undyne and entered her house. Frisk quickly slipped behind Sans while Papyrus moved. Undyne seemed more worried now. 

“heya, undyne,” Sans said. Then, he turned around to Frisk. “c’mere, kiddo. take my hand, i’ll bring ya inside,” the skeleton said to the human. Frisk nodded and watched Sans put his hand out. Frisk clenched the skeleton’s bony hand. Suddenly, they both appeared within Undyne’s house. Frisk was standing just behind the piano. Sans was standing directly in front of it. They both watched as Undyne closed the door and turned to look at the three who just came into her house. 

“I’m... a- alright. Thanks for asking, Papyrus. But, uhm, Frisk. Are you a- alright? Why are there b- bandages around your arm? I’m worried about you, p- punk. Did you do that to y- yourself, or did someone else h- hurt you? Sorry for asking so many questions... god I hate my damn feelings. So sorry. I just... I care about you guys and I want to make sure that you all are a- alright because I can only be a- alright if you guys are a- alright. But, uhm, would anyone like any t- tea?” Undyne nervously said with a heavy sadness resting upon her words. 

“nah, i’m fine. thanks though, undyne,” Sans said, refusing the offered tea. Papyrus sat in one of the chairs. Sans walked over to the table and at in the chair across from Papyrus. The shorter, lazy skeleton motioned for Frisk to come and sit in the seat to his left. Frisk debated upon whether she was ready to head over or not. She decided to go over. Frisk hung her head and quickly jogged over. She sat down in the seat and looked at Undyne. 

“SURE, UNDYNE! I WOULD LIKE SOME GOLDEN FLOWER TEA, IF YOU HAVE ANY. AND DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP FOR HAVING FEELINGS, UNDYNE. YOU’RE TOO GOOD TO INSULT YOURSELF! IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPIER, WE’LL ALL TRY TO BE HAPPIER, UNDYNE. YOUR MENTAL STATE IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS OURS!” Papyrus said. There was so much enthusiasm, compassion, empathy, sympathy, caring-ness, love, and friendship within the kind words of the skeleton. 

Frisk muttered, “Sure,” under her breath. Her head was still hung and Frisk felt some tears begin to form again in her dry eyes. Frisk realized that her fishy friend hadn’t heard her answer, so Frisk spoke up. With her single word, Frisk’s voice trembled greatly. A sob escaped her mouth before she spoke though. That seemed to worry Undyne, Sans, and Papyrus. Frisk began to feel horrible. “Sure,” she said again. 

Undyne worriedly stared at Frisk for a moment. Frisk changed her focus to Sans. He was also staring at Frisk full of worry. Unsettling. Frisk decided to instead look at Papyrus. Oh great. Guess who else was worried and was looking at Frisk? If you guessed that it was Papyrus, then you are correct. Everyone was filled with worry and was staring at Frisk. It wasn’t creepy, but it was. 

Undyne turned around and went and grabbed the tea box. After setting the box down on the counter, the fish lady turned to the cupboard. She grabbed three mugs. The first one was blue with a red handle. In yellow text, ‘NGAH!’ was written on the mug. The second mug was black a black and purple gradient. There was a yellow star in the center of this mug. The third mug was white with an orange handle. There was a clipart of a plate of spaghetti in the center this time. 

As Undyne pulled out a tea kettle and began to make the tea, Frisk saw Sans’s expression. His worried, sad face seemed to speak. It felt like Sans was trying to tell Frisk ‘don’t make this harder on undyne, please. i'm not sure how much more emotional pain she can take, frisk.’ which was sad, to say the least. Then, the two skeletons, the human, and the fish all heard the whistling of the kettle. 

Undyne grabbed the teapot and poured some tea into each mug. It was soothing to hear the flowing of the tasty liquid dropping into the mugs. Once each mug was full, Undyne grabbed some sugar and sprinkled some of the tasty white specks into each drink. The fish lady grabbed all three mugs and brought them over. She gave the purple and black one to Frisk, the white and orange one to Papyrus, and kept the blue and red one for herself. Then, Undyne sat in the chair in facing Frisk. 

Everyone was silent, except for the little sips of tea every so often. Frisk could see the worry in their faces. Frisk was scared to start talking. She really, really didn’t want to tell Undyne. It could go very badly. Frisk was scared. She desperately wanted to inform her friend of her self-harm, but she was too scared. Undyne’s emotions were already not in a great place. Frisk didn’t want to make it worse. But... 

But there was a chance that telling Undyne might make it better. It might help Frisk get that off her chest and it might help Undyne become stronger and know she has to be strong to support her friends. Frisk didn’t know what would happen. There were so many outcomes that could happen... So many were bad, so few were good. Frisk didn’t know what to do. 

“So, p- punk,” Undyne said, her voice trembling. “Why are there b- bandages around your arm?” she asked. Frisk didn’t know if she should respond. Everyone was staring at her again. Frisk was nervous. No, anxious. She slid her mug of tea away from herself and laid her arms crisscross on the table. Frisk then buried her head down in her arms and began to sob. She wasn’t ready to tell Undyne this. Everyone stared at Frisk’s right arm. 

Sans turned his gaze to Frisk’s face. Well, the back of her head. “hey, kiddo, i believe in you. i think you’ll be able to tell undyne, c’mon. frisk, you can tell her. undyne is your friend, right? she could help you. in your own words, ya said, ‘undyne could help stop me,’ so why aren’tcha telling her? i know you can do it, frisk,” Sans encouraged. Frisk felt a bit better. She stopped sobbing but still was crying. Frisk pulled her head out of her arms and just rested it on top of her arms instead. 

Now, Papyrus looked at Frisk’s tear stained face. “HUMAN, I KNOW YOU CAN DO THIS. IF YOU COULD TELL ME, I KNOW YOU CAN TELL UNDYNE. SHE NEEDS TO KNOW, FRISK. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, COULD TELL HER IF YOU WANT ME TO. I’M HERE FOR YOU, FRISK. I’M YOUR FRIEND IN ALL OF THIS,” Papyrus said. Frisk shook her head. She didn’t want Papyrus to tell Undyne. Frisk had to do it herself. If she didn’t, things would surely get worse. 

“I- I can d- do this...” Frisk cried. She lifted her head off of her arms and then wiped her tears. Frisk let her arms rest in her lap as she stared at Undyne. This was going to be very, very hard. Frisk was unsure if she could do this. Maybe it would be better if Undyne didn’t know. If Frisk hid it, then things might get better. No... That would only make things worse. Frisk and Undyne stared at each other for a moment. 

“So, punk. Uhm, are y- you going to tell me? Damn it, sorry f- for rushing you... I’m just really anxious. And w- worried for you. Frisk, just tell me when y- you're ready. Alright, punk?” Undyne suggested. Frisk felt horrible while she nodded. Frisk shouldn’t be delaying this! She should just say it. Frisk should just say ‘I did self-harm, Undyne. Then I expanded my cuts. And now I’m regretting everything.’ 

Everyone stared at Frisk. A couple of minutes passed. Frisk was so, so, so worried. She could do this if she just tried. Frisk needed to tell Undyne. That’s the only way she would be able to get better. Frisk had to do this. She had to. But she just couldn’t. Frisk’s reddish-purple eyes met with Undyne’s yellow eyes. Tears were forming and fleeing in both of their eyes. 

Frisk took a deep breath and then decided to just go ahead and try to tell Undyne. “U- Undyne... After Ch- Chara died... Um... I f- felt really, really s- sad and I felt l- like I should have been the one to d- die and not Ch- Chara... And then I f- felt really sad. And from b- being very sad, I w- wanted to be happy, s- so I thought about wh- what made Ch- Chara happy... S- so after everyone left I j- just sat on the c- couch for a long time... And then I w- went up the stairs. A- and... I can’t d- do this. . . I’m s- sorry, I just can’t tell you y- yet... I d- don't know why, b- but I can’t!” Frisk sobbed. 

Undyne stood up and walked over to behind Frisk. She got down on her knees to Frisk’s left. Undyne grabbed the poor human’s left hand. Undyne looked at Frisk directly in the eyes. “Punk, I kn- know that you can d- do this. Whatever it is... I think you can tell me. Okay, punk?” Undyne said with a smile. Frisk shook her head. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t tell Undyne. For some strange reason, she felt things could only go downhill. 

Frisk let go of Undyne’s hand. She stood up and walked over towards the back hallway. Frisk wiped her tears as she said, “I’ll b- be back...” Frisk then walked into the hallway and turned to the bathroom. Frisk went inside and closed and locked the door behind herself. Frisk felt horrible. She didn’t like what she did and she didn’t want to do any more self-harm, but the poor girl felt that she deserved it. 

Frisk pulled out her phone as she sat on top of the counter. Frisk searched for her dimensional box. She opened up box C and saw six things. The first was Chara’s knife. The second was Chara’s Locket. Third was the suicide note Chara had written. The fourth item within the box was a chocolate bar that Frisk had found in Sans and Papyrus’s fridge. A box of bandages was the fifth item. Finally, there was a bundle of sticks. Frisk reached into her dimensional box and grabbed Chara’s knife and the box of bandages. Frisk closed her dimensional box and set her phone down on the counter next to her. Frisk set the box of bandages next to her phone and set Chara’s knife to the other side of her. Frisk then grabbed the end of the bandage. 

Frisk winced as she pulled the bandage off. It hurt a little. Once Frisk had taken the gooey, bloody bandage off of her arm, she tossed it into the trash can. Then, Frisk looked at her wounded arm. There was dry blood on most of it. Frisk looked at the three cuts. Frisk smiled as tears streamed from her eyes. Then, Frisk grabbed Chara’s knife with her left hand. As Frisk cut herself, she talked to herself. 

“I am a horrible person. I deserve this.” A cut expanding her first cut to the left. “I got Chara killed. I need to suffer.” Next, she expanded the first cut to the right. “I have done nothing to help anyone. I’m useless.” This time Frisk expanded her second cut to the right. “I hurt people badly. I need to be hurt worse.” The second cut gained length going left. “I’ve lied to my friends and I’ve betrayed my friends. I should die.” Frisk increases the size of her third cut. “Chara is not the demon. I am the demon.” Now, all three cuts were bigger. But Frisk wasn’t finished. She started to make a fourth cut. “I am evil. I am mean. I am a jerk. I don’t deserve my friends. I deserve suffering. I need to suffer. I will become better by suffering. I will become happier. Everything... will... b- be... BETTER!” Frisk sobbed. She began to scream as she dug the knife deep into her skin. Frisk felt blood rushing all over herself. Everything hurt. Frisk sobbed. 

Nothing would be better. Everything would be worse. Self-harm is not the right thing. Yet Frisk still did it. To make herself suffer. She was a horrible person. Frisk deserved to hurt herself. Frisk didn’t deserve anything except pain. Pain, suffering, and Frisk. Those three things should constantly be together. That way, things might get better. 

Frisk looked at her extremely deep cut within her arm. That was not good. As her arm trembled, Frisk decided to ignore that and just give herself another cut. She was evil, mean, useless, and bad so it was fine that she was hurting herself. Frisk clenched Chara’s knife harder as she put the bloody tip of the cold steel blade of the knife of her dead best friend against her skin. Frisk felt the extreme slicing pain occur as she brought the tip of the evil blade across her arm. She went through the entire inside of her forearm. Soon, blood and tears were mixing. Frisk was in extreme, horrible pain. 

Then, Frisk noticed the worst part about this. Through increasing the pain she dealt, Frisk had gotten closer to bringing Chara back. Well, that was the optimist’s point of view, at least. In reality, Frisk’s Levels Of ViolencE increased by one. Now, Frisk had four LOVE. That was one fifth of her main goal. But then, some noises brought the depressed, evil girl back to reality. 

Frisk heard pounding on the door. Frisk ignored that and let herself stay sitting upon the counter, letting her tears fall into her new wounds. Suddenly, she heard the voices of her friends worriedly echo into the room. They were scared. They wanted to make sure Frisk was going to be okay. But she wasn’t. She had no chance of being okay after this atrocious act. 

“COME ON, HUMAN! I BELIEVE IN YOU TO STOP SELF-HARMING THIS INSTANT. I KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO IT. YOU DON’T NEED TO SUFFER TO BE HAPPY! I CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BE HAPPY WITHOUT SUFFERING! I, MYSELF, AM AN EXPERT AT IT! NYEH HEH HEH! BUT PLEASE, FRISK, DO OPEN THE DOOR SO THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MIGHT HELP YOU,” Papyrus begged of Frisk. Frisk didn’t care. She wouldn’t do anything. 

“kid, you better open that door right now. i've been hopin’ that you’d keep your promise about that being the only time you self-harmed. i’ve already given you a freebie. now, frisk, open the door. i don’t wanna give you a bad time, but i will if i have ta. so, don’t make me do that, m’kay?” Sans said. His threats didn’t matter to Frisk. All that currently mattered to the depressed human was pain and suffering. Hell, a bad time might help make Frisk enjoy her life more! 

“Look, Frisk. I kinda already f- figured that you were, uhm, s- self-h- harming... but I tried to help you get u- used to telling people. You've got a lot of people to t- tell about your c- cuts. I’m sorry for making things worse. But right now, y- you are making things a very lot much, much worser than I was. You need to stop h- hurting yourself right now, Frisk! It’s for your health, which means it’s for our health, which means it’s for my health. Do it for me, Frisk! So, stop c- cutting yourself and open the damn door! Or, I could break the thing DOWN!” Undyne yelled as she crashed through her own door. 

The captain of the royal guard gasped as she saw the horrific cuts on Frisk’s bloody, sliced arm.


	6. Promise Reused

Undyne watched both Sans and Papyrus quickly stand up. She was worried. Undyne had already kinda figured out that Frisk had cut herself. If the bandages didn’t say enough, Sans and Papyrus’s reaction to Frisk going to the bathroom showed that Frisk was indeed self-harming. Undyne just hoped that Frisk didn’t go to the bathroom to self-harm. Undyne didn’t want anyone else self-harming in her house. It was hard enough where Chara had did it that one time. 

As the two skeletons and the fish sat together, Undyne thought about that one time. It was horrible. It had also happened just after the events at the hospital. And those events at the hospital had occurred when Chara had nearly killed herself. The depressed girl had thrown herself off a bridge that was so high up, there was no chance of surviving. In the moment of the horrific act, a miracle occurred and saved Chara’s life. 

It was then that Undyne had received a phone call from a sobbing Asgore, asking her to come to his house. When Undyne arrived, she saw Asriel lying on the ground with his soul out of his chest. In the human part of his soul, there was a large crack. Asriel was lying motionless while tears were streaming from his eyes. 

Undyne had asked what happened and Asriel had quietly sobbed the name ‘Chara,’ which made Undyne extremely worried. As everyone comforted Asriel and each other, Undyne couldn’t take it and she had broken out in horrible sobs. The biggest thing Undyne remembered from that crying occurrence was having trouble breathing and vomiting because of all the crying. A while later, Frisk had arrived. 

There was blood all over Frisk’s face. In her hands was Chara’s Locket. Undyne grew more worried. Tears were streaming down the poor girl’s face, mixing with the drying blood. But for some strange reason, there was a smile on Frisk’s face. It seemed that it was then that everyone realized that Chara was alive. 

Then, around seven that night, so nine hours later, Undyne received a call from Frisk that said that Undyne had to go to the hospital to see Chara. Undyne was scared but she was able to clean the tears off her face and go. Then, Undyne arrived and hung out with everyone else for a while. When, Frisk arrived, she angrily screamed at Chara through sobs and gave Chara letters. Chara gave the letters to everyone. Undyne still remembered reading hers. 

While thinking about the sad topic, Undyne thrust her trembling hands into her pockets. Undyne felt her phone. Didn’t she still have Chara’s suicide note in one of her dimensional boxes? Undyne knew she did. The fish woman felt a need to read it again. Undyne decided that she would do that in a moment. For now, Undyne wanted to remember this sad time. 

Once she had received her note, Undyne couldn’t even open it before starting to sob. Undyne had been so emotionally distraught with her bipolar depression. At that time, nobody knew why, not even Undyne! Undyne remembered smiling and chuckling right as she began to read it. At that moment, Undyne was questioning if she was the spear of justice? The captain of the royal guard was full of Justice. One of the big things Undyne remembered was sobbing and letting her emotions take control of her body. 

Then, for some reason, Chara had requested for Undyne to be with her while she was healed again. The thing that confused Undyne was the fact that Chara chose her. Undyne had thought that Chara was beginning to trust her. That was one of the happiest moments in Undyne’s life, even though she was super depressed at that moment. Then, everyone had to go and do something except for Undyne. Chara and Frisk decided to hang out in the garbage dump. 

In the garbage dump, Undyne, Chara, and Frisk all were searching for interesting things. Well, at least Undyne and Frisk were. Unfortunately, Chara was looking for Madstablook’s knife. Unhappily, Chara’s reason for doing that was self-harm. After a while, Undyne, Chara, and Frisk went to Undyne’s home. There, Undyne went right to bed after having Chara promise that she wouldn’t hurt herself. Chara did promise. But Chara also destroyed Undyne’s trust that night. 

It turned out that Chara had gone and made more cuts on her arms. Frisk chose to not tell Undyne until the following morning though, which was a bad choice on Frisk’s part. What if Chara had killed herself because her self-harm was found out? Then Frisk would be the only one who might have a chance to stop Chara from killing herself. As Undyne felt her emotions get heavier, she decided it was time to stop and find the note. 

She pulled the phone out of her pocket and began to type in her passcode, but there was a tear on her finger. Undyne quickly wiped the tear on her sleeve and then entered the numbers. 257497. Undyne had those numbers memorized. If you looked at the letters, it spelled a very nice name of a great person who Undyne cared about a lot. Undyne opened the dimensional box app and opened her first box. She saw a couple of things in there. 

The first thing Undyne saw was a code to acquire the pre-order for the game Mew Mew Kissy Cutie Three. Undyne looked at the second item, which happened to be all seven seasons of the Mew Mew Kissy Cutie anime. Undyne kept seeing the gifts she bought for other people. Undyne felt she had put Chara’s note in this box. Undyne looked around more. She saw the spaghetti cookbook, the fish-based pun book, the flower encyclopedia, and a game Undyne had found called ‘crry.’ Then, Undyne saw another thing. 

Undyne saw the sheath that she had bought for Chara. Undyne had sized it perfectly for Chara’s knife. The sheath also had a lock on it so that Chara would not be able to access it unless Undyne or whoever she gave the key to allowed it. The beautiful sheath was a dark blue. On each side, perfectly spaced in the middle, there were three gems in the same order. Alexandrite, Topaz, and Amethyst. It truly was a beautiful sheath. But now, it was useless. 

Unless... What if Undyne gave it to Frisk? Frisk was self-harming. That would work. Undyne grabbed the sheath and placed it on the table. As Undyne closed the dimensional box she was currently in, she opened another one and began to search for the suicide note again. Then, Sans said, “cool sheath. did you get that for ch- for her?” 

Undyne quickly looked up at the two skeletons in front of her. She quickly nodded as tears began to form in her eyes. Papyrus stood up and walked over behind Undyne. Then, he rested his hands upon her shoulders and squeezed them in a comforting way. “UNDYNE, ARE YOU DOING OKAY? I KNOW IT’S HARD THAT SHE IS GONE, BUT AT LEAST WE STILL HAVE EACH OTHER, RIGHT? I’M SORRY THAT YOU’RE FEELING SAD, UNDYNE,” Papyrus said. He smiled at Undyne with the most nicest smile in the world. 

During Papyrus’s response, Undyne found the note she was looking for. After she retrieved her paper and closed her dimensional box, Undyne said, “I’m doing fine, I g- guess... I miss her a lot. She was a pretty damn good person, even if she didn’t b- believe it. I’m glad I have you, Alphys, Sans, Frisk, Asgore, Shyren, Toriel, the dogs, and everyone else. Don’t w- worry about me, Papyrus. I’m doing f- fine!” When she said that she was doing ‘fine,’ Undyne was lying. In all honesty, she was emotionally destroyed. She really needed someone to just vent to that she trusted as a great person that would understand how she was feeling. Someone who would help her get better. 

“BETTER!” Frisk’s voice screamed out. Loud sobs followed. Undyne felt herself go pale as more tears began to stream out of her eyes. Quickly, the yellow irises of Undyne darted between the two skeleton brothers. Undyne was very nervous and very sad. It sounded like Frisk was in pain. But what pain could be caused in a bathroom? The only thing Undyne could think of was self-harm. 

“undyne, we maaaaay need ya for this,” Sans said very unhappily. The way the lazybones said may did not seem like ‘may’ and instead seemed like ‘do.’ Unfortunately, this seemed to more insist upon the idea that Frisk was self-harming, which did not make Undyne happy. Why would Frisk even hurt herself? Undyne didn’t know why. 

“Okay...” Undyne said. She stood up. Sans and Papyrus followed her standing motions. At first, the three walked. After a second or two, their walk evolved into a jogging pace. Soon afterwards, the job became a full on run. Even though it was only like fifty feet, the strange group was very worried about their living human friend. What if Frisk hurt herself too much...? 

“COME ON, HUMAN! I BELIEVE IN YOU TO STOP SELF-HARMING THIS INSTANT. I KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO IT. YOU DON’T NEED TO SUFFER TO BE HAPPY! I CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BE HAPPY WITHOUT SUFFERING! I, MYSELF, AM AN EXPERT AT IT! NYEH HEH HEH! BUT PLEASE, FRISK, DO OPEN THE DOOR SO THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MIGHT HELP YOU,” Papyrus begged of Frisk as the three reached the door. He stood directly in front of the door. 

“kid, you better open that door right now. i've been hopin’ that you’d keep your promise about that being the only time you self-harmed. i’ve already given you a freebie. now, frisk, open the door. i don’t wanna give you a bad time, but i will if i have ta. so, don’t make me do that, m’kay?” Sans requested with a blue eye. 

“Look, Frisk. I kinda already f- figured that you were, uhm, s- self-h- harming... but I tried to help you get u- used to telling people. You've got a lot of people to t- tell about your c- cuts. I’m sorry for making things worse. But right now, y- you are making things a very lot much, much worser than I was. You need to stop h- hurting yourself right now, Frisk! It’s for your health, which means it’s for our health, which means it’s for my health. Do it for me, Frisk! So, stop c- cutting yourself and open the damn door! Or, I could break the thing DOWN!” Undyne yelled as she crashed through her own door. 

The captain of the royal guard gasped as she saw the horrific cuts on Frisk’s bloody, sliced arm. Tears streaming from the eyes of the emotionally distraught Undyne, she slowly stood up while her body shook. Emotions of sadness, anger, and fear erupted within the soul of the fish lady. Why, just why had the poor punk done this to herself? Five bloody cuts were strewn across Frisk’s sliced up arm. One cut was very, very deep. One cut was completely fresh. The other three cuts were slightly expanded in both directions. 

Frisk coughed and began to sob. The poor girl tossed the knife to the ground, where it clattered against the tile. Frisk lifted her legs up on top of the counter and buried her face within the bruised knees. Then, the girl wrapped her left arm across her legs. Frisk’s bloody, wounded right arm followed the same motions. Undyne staggered forward and stopped when she was directly in front of Frisk. One of Undyne’s blue hands gently rested upon Frisk’s shoulder, brushing aside some of the depressed human’s black hair. 

Frisk coughed and lifted her head out of her legs. Propping her head up, Frisk sobbed and asked Undyne, “Wh- why do you even c- care about m- me? All I h- have ever done is h- hurt you... Pl- please, Undyne, d- don't care about m- me. I’m n- not worth your troubles...” Frisk lifted her bloody, cut arm and pushed Undyne’s hand off of her shoulder. 

Undyne sighed as Frisk returned her arm to its original position. So, Frisk wanted to play that game, huh? Well, Undyne felt that she was pretty good at this game. “Frisk, I care about you because you’re my friend. You’re strong, caring, and passionate about doing the right thing. You always stray form the easy path and try to get the better outcome. Ch- she said that you originally made friends with everyone and helped me get in a relationship with the person that I love. You did that for me. You helped me be happy by searching around through the garbage dump. You did that for me. Punk, you went as far as to accept me as a friend, and that’s the strongest thing you can do. Frisk, I care about you because you care about me. Together, I can help you stop hurting yourself and you can try to be happy again. I know that it’s really hard to be happy now that she is dead, but we can make do with the friends we have. Come on, Frisk. Let’s bandage you up, okay?” 

As tears streamed from Frisk’s eyes, the girl nodded and put her arm out. Undyne saw a box of bandages to Frisk’s left, so the fish lady grabbed them and opened up the box. There was a wrap inside, which Undyne pulled out. The captain of the royal guard motioned for Frisk to put her arm out, so the human girl did. Undyne then began to wrap Frisk’s right arm up. As she made tight loops around Frisk’s arms, Undyne stared at the poor girl. Frisk really must be suffering currently. I mean, she did lose the person who she loved most and then Frisk self-harmed and now she was having so much trouble telling people about her self-harm. 

As Undyne finished wrapping Frisk’s arm, she said, “There you go, punk. Now, do you wanna head out of here? I think maybe some Nice Cream may cheer you up. It usually helps me.” Frisk seemed to like the suggestion, but she didn’t move. Undyne was confused. Was Frisk coming or was she staying? Undyne thought that the human liked ice cream. I mean, who didn’t like ice cream? 

Frisk dropped her legs and let them hang. The human straightened her back and looked at Undyne. With tears streaming from her reddish-purple eyes, Frisk embraced Undyne, which startled the fish woman. As she heard Frisk sob and began to feel the girl sobbing, Undyne embraced Frisk back. Then, Frisk said to Undyne, “I j- just feel like I am a h- horrible person... I feel like I d- deserve this for some str- strange, stupid reason... I k- kinda feel like I g- got Chara killed, a- and I really don’t l- like that thought... I just f- feel like I need to s- suffer... E- even though I know it’s wr- wrong, I j- just think that I have d- done nothing to h-help anyone. I’m such a u- useless person... I h- have hurt people badly, s- so I need to be hurt worse than h- how I hurt the people... I f- feel like I’ve lied to all of y- you and that I’ve b- betrayed all of you... I think th- that I should die, it m- might make things b- better, I hope... Even th- though she’s accused of being o- one, Chara is not the demon... I am the r- real demon here... I am j- just a really evil p- person... I’m also m- mean and a big j- jerk... I don’t d- deserve any of y- you... I DESERVE SUFFERING! I NEED TO SUFFER! The o- only w- way I will b- become better by s- suffering, s- suffering will make m- me become happier. Everything w- will... Everything will b- be better. . .” 

Undyne didn’t know how to feel. Frisk really disliked herself that much? No, this wasn’t self-disliking. It wasn’t self-hate either. This was just pure self-loathing. Frisk needed some help. Undyne desperately wanted to help Frisk, but she knew that she wasn’t ready to do so. Undyne still needed some help herself. Papyrus might be better. No, they should probably seek help from someone trained in therapy. Like Franklin. But for now, Undyne thought Nice Cream would be the best therapy for Frisk. 

As Undyne stopped hugging Frisk, she said to the depressed human, “Hey, punk. We’ll help you not hate yourself anymore. What was it that you promised Chara? Oh, I remember. Frisk, we will make you feel better. I promise you that. No matter how much determination it takes, I swear that I, Undyne, will strike down your depression. You matter, Frisk. I am always here for you, punk. Alright? Now, are we going to go get some Nice Cream or what?” Papyrus and Sand finally decided to come through the destroyed door. The skeletons stood side by side in the doorway, glancing between each other, Undyne, and Frisk. 

As Papyrus struck his familiar, heroic pose, he said, “NICE CREAM? WELL, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL HAPPILY GO WITH YOU TO ACQUIRE SUCH A TASTY TREAT! NYEH HEH HEH!” Then, Papyrus turned around and ran. The noise of shattered glass rang out and then everyone realized that Papyrus had thrown himself out the window. That skeleton was so silly and so fun, everyone would probably be at each other's throats if it wasn’t for him. 

Undyne looked at Sans as he spoke. “well, since papy has thrown himself out another window, i think i need to go after him. the nice cream place? and undyne, would you like me to take frisk? i think she and i need to have a talk.” Undyne nodded and allowed Sans to grab Frisk’s hand. Then, the fish lady turned and smiled as she gave a thumbs up. 

“Hey, punks, get me a triple caramel truffle, okay? Then, how about we meet up back here and then head to Alphys’s, okay? Then, Frisk, if you’re up to it, you could tell her about your self-harm. Sound good?” Undyne suggested. Frisk and Sans nodded. Undyne waved goodbye to them as Sans shortcut them away. Once she was sure everyone was out of her house, Undyne let out a depressed sigh. 

This had been a journey. Frisk was self-harming. Had Frisk suggested that she should die earlier? Undyne thought that she might have heard Frisk say something along those lines. As she walked into her own bedroom, Undyne pulled Chara’s suicide note out of her pocket. Then, the captain of the royal guard spoke aloud, “Damn it, punk. I miss ya a lot. Why’s you have to sacrifice yourself. Couldn’t you have thrown your knife or something. Though, Chara, you did want to die...” Undyne threw herself on her bed as she stared at the note. 

NGAH! That’s how you spell it, right? “I think. Ngah! N, g, a, h. Yup, that’s how you spell it.” Sorry for hurting everybody by killing myself. “You didn’t kill yourself, but you’ve definitely hurt everyone. Emotionally, I mean.” I know that everyone has sacrificed a lot for me, and I tried to live my life. “We would sacrifice more to still have you with us, Chara.” I just couldn’t. “I believe that you could do anything if you tried. You were always determined, punk.” I had hoped to be able to be happy, but all my chances of happiness were torn away from me. “One of us would have found something that could make you happy, Chara. Me, Alphys, Frisk, Papyrus, Sans, Asgore, Toriel, Asriel...” By Bane. “I hated that guy. He was an arsehole, as Sans would say.” I have a request for you that I’ve asked everyone else. “To kill Bane?” Can you kill Bane? “Knew it.” To avenge me? “You’ve already killed him, punk.” It would be justice, wouldn’t it? “Hell yeah. You sent him to the hell he deserved.” You are the spear of justice. “I’m not so sure about that, Chara.” The best spear of justice ever. “That’s wrong. There are better people than me out there for this job.” A great friend. “I’m not even a good friend, punk, so what makes you say I’m a great friend?” Even a great foe at times. “I’ll beat your ass if you come back to life, and that will be for dying. You do NOT do that to me, punk. You do NOT do that to anyone. Dying is not allowed, Chara.” But still, you’re awesome, Undyne. “Alright, I’ll just beat you up a little.” I know that you take deaths hard. “Yeah...” Mine probably has hurt a lot. “You freaking bet.” Which, I mean, thanks for caring, but sorry for making you feel that way. “I always cared aboutchya, punk. Well, except for when I originally thought you were a genocidal maniac.” I want you to remember all of our battles of epic moments of friendship. “They’re already engraved in my memory.” I want you to remember every good thing about me. “Always will.” I get that I’ve done bad things. “We all have.” I made myself suffer for what I did. “You shouldn’t have.” You don’t need to suffer, Undyne. “I don’t want to suffer.” I’ll always be happy knowing you’ll be there, living my future for me. “That’s good to hear, punk.” See you if you come to hell, friend. “Yeah, see you in hell. Haha...” But don’t, please. “You’d better know that I’m already heading to hell. I’ve killed you, punk.” You’ve got a lot to be good for, okay? “I’ll try to be good, Chara.” You’re an awesome spear of justice! “You really think that?” You’re the best pal, Undyne. “You were a better pal, Chara...” 

Undyne heard knocking on her door and quickly thrust her note into her pocket. Undyne then stood up off her bed and walked to the door. She opened the jaw-like opening and saw Papyrus, Sans, and Frisk. Undyne smiled as she was handed a triple caramel truffle ice cream. As she stuffed her face with the cold, delicious treat, Undyne said a muffled thank you to her friends. Then, the group of four began to walk towards the area where Franklin and his boat were. 

Once they arrived, they saw a skeletal figure dressed in gray robes standing upon a beautiful wood boat. Franklin, who was the riverman, nodded to say hello to the strange group as he stepped to the side to make room for his four passengers. “Tra la la,” he said, “Where shall we go today?” Franklin was being so very kind by providing this service to monsters who needed it. Well, and humans, too. 

“We’ll head to Hotland, please,” Undyne said. Franklin nodded and then the detailed boat began to move. As the five people upon the boat arrived near the lab in Hotland, Undyne, Frisk, Papyrus, and Sans prepared to hop off. Once they were docked, the four did their readied action. While Franklin was departing to serve some other person in need, Undyne said to him, “Thanks, Franklin!” 

Undyne happily walked alongside her depressed human friend, lazy skeleton friend, and great Papyrus friend. The three approached the once-ominous lab. Undyne came to the doorway and knocked three times. Undyne had a beautiful, strong knock that was hard to replicate. The group of four waited for a moment to hopefully become a group of five. As the doors slid open, Undyne happily watched as Alphys looked up and smiled at the four people in front of her.


	7. Research and Theories

Alphys felt her yellow fingers run across the keyboard as she kept researching. She desperately wanted to find a way to bring a human back form the dead. Alphys had barely been sleeping and she had not really eaten or drank anything in the past couple days. There were bags under her eyes. While she was conducting her research, Alphys heard a familiar knock. This was Undyne’s knock! 

Quickly and anxiously, Alphys saved everything on her computer and turned it off. Then she pushed her glasses up and shoved her chair back. Standing up outside of the wooden desk, Alphys tiredly stumbled over towards the door. As she was about to open it, Alphys realized that her fatigued appearance might worry her friends. Alphys rubbed her eyes, straightened her glasses, dusted off her coat, and took a big, deep breath. 

As the metal door slid open, Alphys saw four of her friends. Undyne was standing directly in front of the door. A big grin covered Undyne’s face as the two sa each other. Behind Undyne was Papyrus, who was standing tall and proud. A heroic smile covered the skeleton’s face, but there were hints of worry. It wasn’t normal for Papyrus to look worried. Alphys realized something might be off. When she saw Sans, Alphys realized something was off. The shorter skeleton looked somewhat upset. There were bags under Sans’s eyes, too. Every couple seconds, Sans would look behind himself. Alphys assumed that Sans was looking at Frisk. 

Frisk looked normal, except for her arms and eyes. Frisk’s normally extremely kind and caring face looked more upset and angrier. Her eyes seemed to stare angrily, even though Frisk was not obviously angered by anything. As her eyes rested on the bandaged arm or Frisk, Alphys realized what was off. Someone or something injured Frisk. Unfortunately, Alphys had suspicions that Frisk had harmed herself. A bad habit that the person Frisk cared about most was addicted to. Within her mind, Alphys pleaded that Frisk had not self-harmed. 

Alphys shifted her attention to Undyne and away from the injured human as the fish lady began to speak. “Hey, Alphys, um, we came here because Frisk has something that, uh, she wants to- I mean, has to tell you. Is it cool if we come in?” Undyne asked. Alphys anxiously nodded as she stepped backwards and to the side. Then, Alphys motioned for Undyne, Papyrus, Sans, and Frisk to come in. Undyne, Papyrus and Sans entered. Frisk stood there with her head held low. 

Sans turned around stared at Frisk, who took a step backwards. The comical skeleton let out a sigh and motioned for Frisk to come in. The poor girl shook her head as tears began to form in her eyes. Alphys was very nervous. Sans said, “c’mon, pal. come inside and we can sort this out. frisk, you can do this, m’kay?” Frisk turned her head to look at the edge of the pathway. As Frisk slowly began to step in that direction, blue fire engulfed Sans’s left eyesocket. His right eye was nowhere to be seen. 

Frisk took a step back towards the lab. Then, the human’s reddish-purple eyes rested on each member of the unique group of monsters for a couple moments. Frisk sprinted inside the lab and grabbed Alphys in a huge hug, which surprised the royal scientist. “I- I’m so s- sorry that th- that h- happened... P- please forgive m- me, I d- don't want to k- kill m- myself... The l- ledge just looked so t- tempting to j- jump off of... I’m sorry. . .” Frisk sobbed into Alphys’s shoulder. Alphys listened closely to what Frisk was saying. Relief crashed all throughout everyone’s bodies when Frisk had said ‘I don’t want to kill myself’. 

Sans stepped forward and rested a hand on Frisk’s shoulder. “heya, buddy, you wanna sit down and take a little break? you need to compose yourself, frisk. i'm gonna have to have ya tell alphys about your s- about it, alright?” Frisk nodded as she ended her and Alphys’s embrace. Alphys noticed that Sans’s eyes had returned to normal. Undyne and Papyrus went to the table and sat down. Sans followed them. Alphys motioned for Frisk to tail the other three. Alphys let out a sigh of relief when Frisk did. Alphys didn’t know what Frisk would do. After watching her almost kill herself, Alphys had accepted that at the moment, Frisk was very, very unpredictable. 

Alphys shut the door closed and then walked over to the table. She saw Sans and Undyne staring at all the papers that were thrown across the table. Papyrus was carefully watching Frisk, who was crying with her head resting on the table. Alphys took a seat, specifically the one in between Frisk and Undyne. Alphys empathetically patted Frisk on the back before turning to look at Undyne, who was staring at an open book with a perplexed countenance. 

As Undyne grabbed the book, she looked at Alphys, still very confused. “Hey, um, Alphys? What is this book? It doesn’t seem that science related... Why are you trying to learn how to summon demons? And, why’s that paper on resurrecting dead monsters over there?” Alphys bit her lip as Undyne asked the question. Alphys somewhat wanted to keep her research private. 

“YES, THERE ARE VERY INTERESTING THINGS HERE. ‘CREATING AN ARTIFICIAL SOUL’ SEEMS LIKE AN INTERESTING ARTICLE. ALSO, ‘HUMAN BURIAL POLICIES’ IS UNIQUE. WHAT ARE YOU RESEARCHING, ALPHYS?” Papyrus asked with his wholesome curiosity. Alphys hoped that nobody would guess what she was researching. It would most probably attract negative reactions from the group. 

Sans grabbed a notebook Alphys had and read over the page. He looked up at Alphys with a hopeful and desperate expression after skimming through the page. Alphys felt herself get a bit paler. That was the very notebook where Alphys was writing her notes and keeping track of the data and information she acquired from her studies. “say, um, alphys, do you want any help for your research project? i'm sure that frisk would be willing to help you once she’s not ‘accidently almost trying to commit suicide’. i would help, but i’ve got some private stuff i need to work on. say, do you mind if i take a copy of your notes?” Sans said. 

“U- uhm, heheheh... S- sure...! I m- mean, I don’t s- see why not, Sans. S- so, um...” Alphys said. Quickly, the royal scientist brainstormed ideas that might help her change the topic of the conversation. Then, Alphys remembered Frisk’s injured arm. “Frisk! What d- do you need to t- tell me?” Alphys hoped that she didn’t seem too suspicious. 

Instantly, Undyne and Sans turned towards Frisk with nervous expressions. Papyrus stared at Frisk with hopeful, sympathetic eyes. Frisk raised her head and looked at Alphys. With tears pouring out of her reddish-purple eyes one by one, Frisk said with her voice trembling, “Because I’m a h- horrible person, I d- decided to, uh, I wanted to, no, I mean, u- um, I have c- I can’t do this... No, I c- can. I just need to st- stop being so stupid and sc- scared! I made a b- bunch of cuts o- on my arm... I’m s- so sorry... I self-harmed. . .” 

Alphys solemnly nodded. Unfortunately, it was exactly what the anxious monster had anticipated when she had viewed the bandages covering wounds upon Frisk’s right arm. Alphys said to Frisk, “Frisk, it’s not o- okay that you did that. You’re not a h- horrible person. From what Chara told me, y- you helped me greatly in previous t- timelines.” Then, Alphys turned to Papyrus, Sans, and Undyne. “H- hey, um, could you three give Frisk and I a m- minute, please? Th- thanks,” Alphys said. Papyrus nodded and stood. The great skeleton ran into one of the side rooms. Sans stood and stared at Frisk. Alphys knew that Sans was telling Frisk not to try anything. Then, the short skeleton shortcut himself away, most likely into the side room that Papyrus had entered. Undyne stood up and worriedly looked at Alphys and Frisk. Alphys nodded at Undyne, trying to convince her that the two of them would be okay. Undyne, after staring at the human and monster for a moment more, finally gave up and slowly trailed after Papyrus. 

As her friends walked away, Alphys carefully planned what she wanted to say to Frisk. Trying not to stutter as she explained to Frisk the purpose for her research and the experiments she wanted to try, Alphys said, “So, Frisk. I’ve been researching ways to bring people back to life, humans specifically. I think that you know wh- who I want to bring back. I’ve been working on this basically since Chara died, trying to find as many ways as possible to bring her back. So, I want to share with you what I have at the moment. I know that originally, Chara was summoned from when you did a genocide route and then gained twenty Levels Of ViolencE. Chara had called herself a demon, too. Think more upon that fact, I wondered if maybe there was some sort of spiritual world or place after d- death. If so, Chara might actually be classified as a demon in those plains of existence. My first experiment I want to try might make it seem like we’re in a cult, but I want to try to summon Chara like how one summons a demon. If that experiment fails, which it probably will, I want to try more scientific ways of resurrection. Many years ago, I followed the work of the previous royal scientist, who was named Doctor Gaster. Gaster had tried to create human souls previously, so I found some of his research. I also adopted a couple of papers upon soul creation from some websites that I deemed trustworthy. Continuing from this idea, I might be able to create an artificial human body that would be somewhat robotic, but I could be exactly like Chara. If it works, we could make Chara a robot of sorts. Somewhat like how Mettaton is. Another possible solution to bringing Chara back to life would work if Chara became a ghost after death. Then, we could do exactly what I did with Mettaton. My f- final idea involves both you and Asriel. Since you are a human and Asriel and Chara’s souls merged, by extracting some DNA, determination, and taking a little bit of your souls, I might be able to recreate Chara’s soul. Then, by using her dust, I might be able to find the exact way to fit her dust together to recreate her body. After putting the dust together like I puzzle, I could merge the dust into one solid body that we could put Chara’s soul inside and resurrect her. So, um, would you like to help me as I try to resurrect h- her?” 

Frisk stared at Alphys listening to what she said. Interestingly enough to Alphys, Frisk didn’t seem like she wanted to do it all that much. Since it might bring Chara back from the dead, Alphys had assumed that Frisk would be all of trying to do this. Alphys realized that she shouldn’t plan on other people wanting to help her. Alphys felt somewhat guilty. Then, Frisk said, “Sure, I’ll h- help you, I guess...” 

Alphys felt very guilty and anxious as she paled. Her palms were very sweaty. “W- well, um, Frisk, y- you don’t, u- uh, have to, heheh, help m- me, uhm, if you d- don't, heh, w- want to! D- don't let m- me, uh, pr- pressure you into, heh, a- anything! S- so, um, please be, uh, honest w- with me, heheh, here, heh, u- um, do you want to d- do my weird things w- with me?” 

Frisk nodded. So, Frisk said yes. Unless Alphys had pressured Frisk into saying yes. So, either Frisk wanted to do this or Alphys was just being a really mean and bad friend. Alphys didn’t want to be a bad mean friend, but she very well could be. Alphys felt very, very awkward. She was unsure if Frisk did want to help her or not. Guilt, anxiousness, excitedness, tiredness, focus, interest, hope, and happiness were all the emotions that were currently within Alphys’s soul. Alphys felt guilty for possible somewhat controlling Frisk and forcing her to accept Alphys’s offer. Anxiousness would be since Alphys is always anxious. Alphys was excited that Frisk was willing to help her out with her rather, um, unique experiments. Alphys was tired because of the five hours of sleep she had gotten total throughout the past couple days. The focus came from the desire for precision on saying what she wanted. Alphys was interested because, well, this was her research she was conducting. Alphys’s happiness came from the fact that Frisk said yes and there might be a chance that Chara could be revived. 

In response to Frisk’s nod, Alphys nodded. Then, humoring both of them, Frisk nodded to retort to Alphys’s nod to respond to Frisk’s nod. Not wanting to end the funny cycle, Alphys nodded after Frisk nodded to retort to Alphys’s nod that responded to Frisk’s nod. With a big smile on her face and tears beginning to end, Frisk nodded to answer Alphys’s nod after Frisk’s nod to retort to Alphys’s nod to respond to Frisk’s nod. Now, the royal scientist and the human were both in laughter. And not just any laughter, either. Wheezing, giggling, and nose exhaling all happening very quickly, one after another. In between their laughs, one of them would choke out ‘I can’t breathe!’ because the hilariousness of their encounter was so funny that for a while, neither of them could actually breathe. 

Undyne ran out of the side room with a terrified expression on her face. As their laughter calmed and died, Frisk and Alphys turned to look at the captain of the royal guard. Once Undyne saw that they were only laughing, she let out a sigh of relief and asked, “So, are you guys done? Sans is looking at your notebook and he had a question.” 

Frisk said while wiping away the last of her tears, “Yeah, we’re done now. You guys can come out. Alphys and I are done talking.” Alphys smiled with a nod. She wondered what Sans’s question was. There were a lot of, say, questionable things in that notebook. There was the scientific side and then Alphys’s personal theories on things. And those things were typically anime plots. 

Undyne nodded and walked back into the side room. A moment later, she, Papyrus, and Sans returned to the main room. Undyne sat next to Frisk, Papyrus sat next to Undyne, and Sans sat next to Alphys. Sans turned to Alphys and asked, “so, uh, alphys, dijya know doctor gaster personally? i'm just wondering because, um, reasons.” 

Alphys was interested by this. Not many people knew about Doctor Gaster after he mysteriously died. The death of Wing Din Gaster was interesting. He had fallen into the Core. Whether it was a mistake, a trick, suicide, or homicide, nobody knew. As she pondered the previous royal scientist’s death, Alphys answered Sans’s question. “I knew D- Doctor Gaster for a b- bit. Two w- weeks. It was just before he f- fell into the Core,” she answered. 

Then, Papyrus asked, “SANS, ALPHYS, ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT MY DAD? WELL, SANS AND I’S DAD? WASN’T THAT HIS NAME, BROTHER? GASTER? I BELIEVE SO. SO DID DAD DIE BY FALLING INTO THE CORE, SANS? WAIT, BOTH OF YOU MET DAD? I WISH I GOT TO MEET DAD...” Alphys felt confused. I mean, both Doctor Gaster and the skelebros were skeletons, but Alphys didn’t think they were directly related. 

This was interesting. If so, then Sans and Papyrus must have inherited some of Gaster’s powers and intelligence, which means that they might be able to help her with her research on how to bring Chara back! After they hopefully succeeded on returning the depressed human to life, they might even try to bring Gaster himself back from the dead! Alphys became very excited. But then, she noticed how sad Papyrus looked. 

The great skeleton was slouched forward, which was already strange enough for the silly sentry. Papyrus’s hands were on his shoulders and he was sitting on the edge of his seat. His elbows were resting upon the table. The normally happy, energetic mouth of the great Papyrus that was typically in a smile was currently in the shape of a frown. Papyrus’s usually gleeful eyes looked dull and drained of life. Sadness and disappointment seemed to flow through Papyrus. 

Strangely, Frisk piped into the conversation. “Um, would falling into the Core kill somebody or would they be put into the void?” What an interesting question. Alphys had never really seen Frisk as a type of person who would be interested in science that much. And why the void? Why not some other probably fictional plane of existence? 

While Alphys thought those thoughts, Undyne said basically exactly what Alphys was thinking. “Punk,” Undyne said, “that’s oddly specific, I think. What's up with the void? And why would you have a theory like that? Fo you know something that we don’t, Frisk? If so, you can tell us. I’m here, Alphys is here, Sans is here, and Papyrus is too! Also, are you okay, Papyrus? You seem down.” Beads of sweat began to form on Frisk’s face. Frisk looked very nervous and anxious. 

Luckily for Frisk, though, Papyrus answered first. “YES, I’M OKAY. I JUST FEEL UPSET. SANS HAS TALKED TO ME ABOUT DAD FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS AND NOW I LEARN THAT ONE OF MY FRIENDS HAS MET MY DAD AND I HAVEN’T. I’M SORRY IF I’VE MADE ANY OF YOU SAD. I JUST FEEL REALLY DISAPPOINTED,” the cool dude said. Undyne patted Papyrus on the back in a comforting way. Papyrus flashed an unconvincing smile to her. 

As Alphys turned to Frisk, waiting for an answer, Sans saved Frisk from answering. “i think that maybe we should take a break for a bit. alphys, do have anything for us to do?” After Sans’s question, Alphys immediately forgot the question Undyne had asked Frisk. This was very exciting. Typically, people didn’t care about what Alphys wanted to do. That was probably because Alphys never suggested anything, but this was still very exciting! Alphys had so many ideas. 

They could play a game. They could watch some anime. They could play some video games. They could read manga. They could write FanFiction. They could draw Fanart. A smile covered Alphys’s face. But now, Alphys had to choose just one thing to do. As she thought about what to do, Alphys remembered something she had wanted to do for a while. “i actually h- have something for each of you. Hold on a m- minute, please,” Alphys said while standing up. She hurried over to her computer. Alphys opened up her computer’s dimensional box and grabbed a couple of presents she had wrapped and stored. Closing the dimensional box after retrieving all of the presents, Alphys stumbled over to the table, trying not to drop any of the presents. There were ten in total. “H- here you guys go. All of them a- are labeled. Some are f- for other people, b- bit I hope you like what I got you g- guys.” 

Sans, Papyrus, and Undyne went searching through the presents. Sans found one for himself. Papyrus found one for himself. Undyne found one for herself. The first present Frisk grabbed made tears begin to stream out of her eyes. Everyone was confused. When Alphys sat down next to Frisk again, she realized why. That was one of the two presents addressed to Chara. While Sans, Papyrus, and Undyne opened their gifts, Alphys searched through the pile to find Frisk’s. 

Sans lazily ripped the paper off the box and then removed the lid of the box. His eyes went wide in happiness. Sans pulled out the thirty-two pack of whoopee cushions. Sans hugged his gift and instantly slid it inside his dimensional box for safe keeping. As Sans did that, Papyrus carefully peeled off the wrapping paper off, making sure to make no tears. Then, the skeleton took the lid off and smiled. Papyrus pulled out a copy of the book Don’t let the Pidgeon Drive the Bus and admired it. Papyrus put his amazing gift in his dimensional box. Meanwhile, Undyne opened the lid of her first present without taking off the wrapping paper. It was just *rip* and the lid was off. Undyne peeked inside and found a little bracelet with a fish charm. The fish lady smiled and quickly donned the jewelry on her wrist. For her second gift, Undyne opened it the same way. Within this one, the captain of the royal guard found an energy spear repair kit. Undyne laughed and put it in her dimensional box. At the exact same time, Papyrus, Sans, and Undyne all said, “Thanks, Alphys!” Then, the three laughed at their accidental comedic act. 

After finding Frisk’s gifts, there were three, Alphys put them in front of Frisk, who then pushed the away, which influenced Alphys to push them back to Frisk, who allowed the gifts to just sit in front of her. After a couple minutes of waiting, Alphys anxiously asked, “U- um, Frisk? C- could you m- maybe, uh, please open, heheh, your g- gifts, please?” Frisk shook her head to say no. “Why n- not, Frisk?” Alphys asked. 

As more tears began to pour from Frisk’s dry eyes, she cried, “I don’t deserve your gifts. I am not a good person. I do not deserve to be treated well. You guys just do not understand how I feel. I am the reason that the person I care about most is dead, and you guys are trying to comfort me. I basically killed Chara. I might as well have been the one to rip her soul apart... And now you guys are trying to make me feel happy? One, it is a lost cause. Two, I do not deserve to be happy. Okay?” 

Sans sighed and looked at Frisk with an annoyed expression. With a very monotone voice and a dead expression, Sans said, “kid, open the damn presents.” Frisk shook her head and Sans shrugged. “i give up,” Sans announced. This achieved an angry sigh from Papyrus. Sans stared at Frisk. Sans was stared at by Papyrus. 

“Hey, um, punk,” Undyne said, trying to help persuade Frisk into opening the gifts, “what if it makes Alphys happy if you open the gifts? I mean, she’s a pretty good person, if you ask me. Alphys does deserve to be happy. So, Frisk, open the gifts. Please.” Frisk sighed and grabbed the first present. Undyne turned to Alphys and winked. Alphys smiled back at Undyne. 

The first of the three gifts that Frisk unwillingly received was a bracelet a lot like Undyne’s, except for the fact that it had a red heart charm instead of a fish charm. Frisk smiled quickly, and this was a real smile. Quickly, Frisk put on her new accessory. Frisk’s second gift seemed more like a helpful thing. It was a bottle of anxiety medication. As Frisk pulled it out of the box, Sans quickly grabbed it away. Alphys knew it was for the best after what had happened earlier. Frisk’s third item was a beautiful necklace. It had an amazing gold chain with hundreds of little links. There was a rose quartz heart attached to the bottom. Frisk looked up at Alphys with a great big smile as she put the necklace on over her head. 

Frisk looked actually happy at the moment. Like, genuine happiness. A real smile was across Frisk’s face, not a fake smile plastered onto her mouth. Alphys smiled back at Frisk. Frisk quietly said to Alphys, “Thank you so much, Alphys. You're an amazing person. Maybe I should try to be happier. Thank you so, so much. You’re a great friend.”


End file.
